What is Mentoring?
Posted by Melanie in 
Mentoring has a long and ancient history. It is based on a story in Greek mythology. When Odysseus went to the Trojan War, he appointed his good friend Mentor as a role model, guardian and adviser to his son Telemachus. Later in the Odyssey, the goddess Athena, disguised as Mentor (Mentes), becomes more actively involved in the young man’s life, encouraging him to seek his father, introducing him to the network of heroes and fighting beside him and Odysseus to restore order (Powell in NAWE 2000 has an interesting feminist analysis of this).
From these origins, mentoring is used to refer to a relationship in which an older more experienced person acts as a guide or a model for a less experienced colleague.
Mentoring is part of all our lives. We learn and take advice from parents, teachers, older friends. Mentoring has been significant for many successful people in all walks of life. But in recent years mentoring has emerged in many organisations as a formal mechanism to assist employees achieve their full potential. (McKenzie 1995, NAWE 2000)
Mentoring relationships can be dyadic (or one-to-one) or can relate to a Socratic model (one mentor with a group of mentees) or can take place within a peer group.
A definition of mentoring today is provided by Shea, “Mentoring is a fundamental form of human development where one person invests time, energy and personal know-how in assisting the growth and ability of another person” (1997, p.3).
Essentially all mentoring relationships feature two main roles: the mentor and the mentee. Many other different terms can be used for these two roles, but these have become widely accepted.
A mentor is more experienced, and often in a higher position in an organisation. The mentor is one who is explicitly willing to assist others in developing their career.
A mentee is a term used for someone who is less experienced and seeking guidance in career development. The mentee must keep in touch with the mentor and feel free to speak openly, ask for guidance, discuss the relationship and seek advice on how to approach problems.
The mentor’s role is that of a trusted adviser and supportive guide, encouraging the mentee in effective strategies for accomplishing career objectives. A mentor may also act as a teacher or tutor, helping the mentee learn organisational and professional skills and providing insights about how to ‘decode’ the corporate culture. At times, the mentor may also perform the role of supporter, providing insights from experience to help the mentee manage difficult situations. An effective mentor keeps in touch with the mentee, suggests appropriate resources and encourages the mentee to establish or seek out professional or supportive networks.
Both mentor and mentee must trust and respect each other. The relationship must be based on clear principles and shared values.
While informal mentoring has long been a feature of many work environments, formal mentoring has only recently emerged as a staff development strategy. What are the reasons for this?
Work in general has become more complex, with more rapid turnover of staff in many organisations, so that mentoring is required. Perhaps more importantly, the hitherto unrecognised trajectories of power within workplaces have been identified, and attention drawn to those who through gender, race or other reasons may not have equal access to senior positions.
Formal mentoring occurs when an institution takes a decision to implement a scheme of mentoring which will have formal recognition within the institution even if there are no tangible rewards for being involved as a mentor. Formal mentoring has emerged when there is executive commitment for it and champions ready to argue for such a scheme.
A formal mentoring program extends the mentoring experience to those who may not readily find informal mentors or who would not otherwise consider it.
Formal mentoring can lead to a more supportive work environment. Interestingly formal mentoring may also lead to more effective informal mentoring. If the formal experience has been good for mentee and mentor and they have learned skills, they are more likely to mentor other people. In this way, lessons learnt from one program can extend to the whole organisation.
Many higher education institutions now organise more structured mentoring schemes, to ensure that all members of the institution have equal opportunity to participate.
Formal mentoring schemes have a clear rationale; measurable goals and outcomes; mechanisms for assessment and selection of both mentors and mentees in place and accountability, since results are monitored.
The most significant variable to any mentoring scheme is the quality of the relationship with the mentor.
Source: Women & Mentoring in Higher Education, C Chesterman
Working in the Cloud
In a recent survey, 95% of respondents used a laptop and over 80% used a Smartphone as their usual out-of-office, road warrior system to keep connected.
So, what about the cloud, the place where your files reside?
There’s iCloud although restrictive at the moment and Google of course as well as other specialist suppliers.
By utilising cloud technology you gain:
- more productivity
- more comfort and
- security – less chance of losing that USB Drive with all your data on it!
From a client or colleague perspective, you can cooperate, collaborate and accommodate different time zones or working hours. I know there are times where I’ve been caught short without a file to send to a client when I’ve been on the road. (Warning – if you want to use GoogleDocs to give clients a link to a file, the client needs to have a GoogleDocs account as well ).
Cloud technology lets you control the outside world and your interaction with it better than being on-demand and always available. If you manage it well enough, you can go and play in the outside world!
What’s the biggest bonus?
Productivity.
The normal working day is like a pipeline – incoming, process, outgoing. The challenge is that the tube gets clogged with inefficient processing and an endless stream of incoming!
How To Use The Cloud
As soon as stuff comes in, file it in the cloud so when you process, it’s already there and available from all devices. (Having had a failed external storage drive recently, there is an appeal to storing it on a more robust virtual server).
Examples:
- big part of overload
- rule – keep inbox empty by filtering incoming mail, eg A1 Delegate A2 QuickResponse A3 DoToday A4 DoThis week A5 DoLater, A99 Pending, FAQ Replies, Networking, Reading,Subscription,ZZZ Old Stuff Work out a filing system that nakes sense to you.
- go through your sent folder and retain what’s necessary, delete the rest.
- Documents
- Use Dropbox for filing material to access on the go eg downloaded audio, pdfs, ebooks etc Use Carbonite or similar for backups and store a backup copy on disc.
- Use Evernote – eg capture article pics to use, book project, reading, reference, travel. writing
- Articles/Blogs to read
- Google Reader – blog feeds – and use FF with ReadItLater plugin to store bookmarks
- photos – dropbox or evernote
- audio – dropbox or evernote
Just decide on a system of what generally goes where, make sure you backup your dropbox folder and have what you need at your disposal when you need it!
Check out dropbox and other providers in terms of size limits eg Dropbox standard is 2gb.
Organisations Don’t Change
Organisations don’t change : People do. That was the headline on an HR Daily email recently. It certainly grabbed my attention, largely because it succinctly spoke the truth.
In my experience, when a major change management initiative is touted, the bulk of the focus – and investment – is in the technical end. Customizing the software, designing the new system, creating the improved process.
The investment in people change to effect the desired change outcomes is an afterthought and any financial investment eg in training is begrudgingly given.
Yet, without the active support and capability of the ‘people systems’ to realize the ROI of the change initiative, all effort is potentially wasted.
I’ve been involved in a number of change initiatives. The ones which bedded down more easily and delivered expected results were the ones where the people required to make the change work were engaged from the earliest opportunity – even where industrial issues were potentially significant.
When was the last time you managed to steer your car in a new direction without requiring you to do something?
Welcome!
