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Best Practice in Mentoring
The successful mentor is someone who:
- volunteers time to take a personal interest in others
- listens 'actively'
- questions and finds out what is important to others, exploring their
skills, aptitudes and aspirations
- challenges assumptions and acts as a sounding board
- creates an open and candid relationship, to encourage the growth of trust
and confidence, which assists the learning process
- regards all that the mentee says as confidential
- helps someone less experienced to learn by allowing minor errors, but will
endeavour to prevent them making major errors
- avoids mentoring those in a direct reporting line, and may influence, but
does not 'step on the toes' of, other line managers
- brings a rigorously professional approach to the mentoring
relationship
- uses imagination to overcome own limitations as well as those of the
mentee
- recognises when the mentee should be identifying a need for other sources
of help (such as from an institution)
- has appropriate training and experience for the role
- gains significant personal and career development from mentoring
The success of a mentoring relationship depends also on the attitude and
commitment of the individual being mentored. He or she should:
- understand that the role of the mentor is to challenge and encourage but
not to provide answers
- guard against becoming dependent on the mentor
- approach each meeting fully prepared
Relationships which start with a clear ‘learning contract’ are
generally the most rewarding.
- conflicts of interest must be avoided, so it is usually considered
inappropriate for a mentoring relationship to exist between manager and
subordinate, or close colleagues.
- it is important that ground-rules are established at the beginning of the
relationship, to avoid misunderstanding later on. These may include the timings
and format of meetings, the expected length of the commitment and methods of
communications.
- responsibilities and expected outcomes may be discussed at an early stage.
For instance, it is important to state any specific results the mentee hopes to
gain from the relationship, and what the measures will be for these.
Mentors can operate independently in all types and sizes of organisation,
but company schemes are found to be more effective if they:
- have the support of top management
- use carefully selected volunteers, who are well-matched to the employees
being mentored
- start within a limited pilot mentoring programme, which can be extended as
it becomes established
- operate as part of a wider scheme, which is unobtrusively monitored
- are supported by an able co-ordinator, usually a manager or Human Resources
professional, who maintains the programme and ensures that its standard (and
thus its reputation) remains high
- take care to distinguish between the roles of line managers and mentors, to
avoid conflicts between concern for task completion and the mentee's training
and development needs
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