What is Mentoring?

Mentoring is a confidential partnership between two people, based on understanding and trust. Its main aim is to build capability and self-reliance in the mentee. Mentoring is a positive developmental relationship, which is driven primarily by the mentee, and through which the mentee can take responsibility for their development. Nevertheless, mentoring can also be described as a two-way learning relationship providing opportunities for the mentor to learn - and for the organisation to benefit.

Mentoring can be formal, informal or peer.

Informal mentoring is when a partnership forms between a senior member of staff and a junior member of staff / an experienced member of staff with a less experienced one without intervention, planning or management from the institution. The aim of the mentoring arrangement is to assist the less experienced / junior member of staff in developing work and/or career-relevant skills through exposure to work and learning opportunities.

Formal mentoring is when the organisation recruits participants to a mentoring programme, with varying degrees of support for the partnership in terms of management and training. In some mentoring schemes the organisation assigns mentors while in others the mentee makes the selection. In some formal schemes guidance may be provided about the location, duration and frequency of meetings.

Peer mentoring is where the mentor and the mentee work at the same level and the mentor supports a new employee, or student, either in a formal or informal capacity. The lack of hierarchy in peer mentoring has been found to support communication and collaboration for effective learning, information sharing, emotional support and friendship. This approach is commonly used in Higher Education.

What a mentor does is:

  • Help the mentee, as a new employee, researcher or student, to settle in to an organisation
  • Help and support the mentee through a development programme, by talking issues through to help the individual get a clearer picture of themselves and how they are progressing
  • Provide help and support to the mentee in identifying the opportunities that will help the individual grow as an individual and a professional
  • Help the individual develop the confidence to tackle the problems and issues they will encounter in their working life.

(From “Developing People Through Mentoring”, G Wilcox and S Morris, FT Professional, 1998)

Mentoring is effective for:

  • Knowledge development and sharing
  • Managing additional or new roles and projects
  • Exploring and developing individual career potential
  • Developing leadership skills
  • Providing a safe place for reflection
  • A source of information, knowledge, expertise and experience
  • Development of effective learning environments
  • Supporting individuals through change
  • Problem-solving skills development

Some of the ways in which mentoring is currently used within Keele University are shown below:

  • For the orientation of new undergraduates through a range of peer mentoring initiatives, including peer e-mentoring
  • supporting the induction of new staff through the assignment of a mentor or ‘induction buddy’
  • within teaching, research, professional and support areas mentoring is used for the assimilation / on-going development of staff to new projects, assignments or roles
  • Within specific initiatives, for example, the mentoring of women within the Athena Swan programme
  • To provide individual developmental support within a qualification or accreditation programme
  • To offer support for individuals within Change Projects
  • To assist in identifying and supporting potential for career progression
  • To enhance leadership skills for those who have assumed leadership responsibilities.

Mentoring defined

The following definitions capture the variation in models and approaches to mentoring.

“Off-line help, by one person to another, in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking.”

Megginson and Clutterbuck

“Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.”

Eric Parsloe, Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring

“Mentoring is a long term relationship that meets a developmental need, helps develop full potential, and benefits all partners, mentor, mentee and the organisation.”

Suzanne Faure

Mentoring is a partnership between two people built on trust. It is a process in which the mentor offers on-going support and developmental opportunities to the mentee. Addressing issues and blockages identified by the mentee, the mentor offers guidance, counselling and support in the form of pragmatic and objective assistance. Both share a common purpose of developing a strong two-way learning relationship.”

Jenny Sweeney

Characteristics ofMentoring:

Although mentoring can be more or less formal and used to meet various developmental needs, most approaches to mentoring share a number of fundamental characteristics. Mentoring is generally:

  • Off-line: The mentor is someone from outside the mentee’s reporting hierarchy. Thus neither person has authority over the other.
  • One person to another:Mentoring is a partnership to which the mentor brings relevant experience, expertise and knowledge.
  • Confidential: The issues between mentor and mentee are confidential.
  • Mentee-driven:The mentee should take the initiative in the relationship – and responsibility for actions taken lies with the mentee.
  • Person-focused: The mentoring relationship is focussed on the development of the mentee so the they can make significant transitions.

In an effective mentoring relationship, the relationship between the mentor and mentee is very important. Mentoring works best where there is:

  • A high degree of trust and mutual regard
  • The mentor helps the mentee become what the mentee aspires to be
  • The mentee is helped to realise his or her potential
  • The mentor also learns and develops, both through developing mentoring skills and through being a mentor.

What is common to all mentoring relationships is that the mentee comes to view things differently. The relationship promotes change in the mentee, supporting the mentee towards a new vision of what is possible. Mentors are not there to sort out problems, but rather to highlight the issues and to help plan ways through them. Using skilful questioning and listening techniques, they help to clarify the mentee’s perspective, while bringing an additional impartial view to bear on the issues.

How is mentoring different from other developmental approaches?

As a developmental approach mentoring can be described as:

  • A relationship at a distance
  • Offered by one to another with a degree of freedom of choice
  • Recognised and understood by both
  • Focussed around a significant transition in activity, role, expertise or understanding.

Mentoring is therefore a developmental approach that is suitable for learning scenarios that are learner driven, and where the outcomes sought are around building autonomy and ownership for personal development. The table below compares mentoring with training around three learning dimensions.

Training / Mentoring
Ownership of Goal / Externally set standard
Eg pass exam / award
Meet training objectives / Goals set by person receiving the mentoring
Purpose / Imparting knowledge, skills and information / Growing capability and self-reliance
Skills / Instructing, explaining, facilitating / Listening, questioning, giving impartial advice

Mentoring is often described as a ‘Helping Role’. Other developmental approaches also described as helping roles include coaching and counselling. There is often some confusion about the difference in roles – particularly when determining the difference between coaching and mentoring. These roles are described and interpreted variously within different contexts. Here the more traditional description of coaching is used to demonstrate the range of support provided within helping roles.

A counsellor is usually a qualified professional whose skill lies in helping individuals to come to terms with underlying, often deep seated, emotional or psychological difficulties. Counselling enables individuals to come to terms with what is past so that they can begin to move on. Counselling deals with all aspects of the individual’s life, not just workplace problems.

A Coach seeks to support the coachee in finding his or her own solutions to work-based problems which may be immediate or long standing. Coaches recognise that individuals usually know what will work best in their business lives so, while they will challenge underlying assumptions, they very seldom offer advice. Coaching relationships generally last for a fixed period at a specific time in an individual’s development. Coaching is about the content and process of the work.

A mentor is usually a more senior and experienced person who is willing to share his or her own experiences of successes and failures at work and a knowledge of how organisations function with a less experienced colleague. A mentor may offer more advice than a coach, giving guidance based on personal knowledge and experience. It is, however, still the mentee’s responsibility to commit to, and take, action as an outcome of the conversations. A mentoring relationship is usually long lasting and addresses the career aspirations and longer-term development needs of the mentee. Mentoring is about the context of the work.

(Attributed to Sheridan Maguire, Walking with Leader)

One important attribute of the mentor is the ability to identify the most appropriate source of help and support required by the mentee and, where appropriate, to be able to refer the mentee on to additional or alternative help if this cannot be provided through a mentoring relationship.

Models of mentoring

Mentoring approaches can range across a spectrum of activity, from directive through to non-directive, and can be applied across a spectrum of approaches that span from stretching through to nurturing, as illustrated in the diagram below.

The Spectrum of Mentoring Approaches

While developmental mentoring sits most appropriately within the non-directive area of the mentoring spectrum, the mentor will need to be able to use both stretching and nurturing approaches as appropriate. An effective mentor will adjust their approach to meet the needs of the mentee at any point during the relationship. The following diagram provides an overview of the different approaches that may be utilised during developmental mentoring.

Directive and non-directive behaviour within mentoring

PUSH – solving someone’s problem for them
Telling
Instructing
Giving Advice
Offering Guidance
Giving Feedback
Making Suggestions
Asking questions to raise awareness
Summarising
Paraphrasing
Reflecting
Listening
Helping someone solve their own problem -PULL

Who can be a mentor?

An effective mentor is generally an accomplished and experienced individual who takes a special, personal interest in helping to guide a junior or less experienced person – and is willing to share their knowledge with someone less experienced in a relationship of mutual trust. In terms of their relationship to the mentee the mentor may be:

  • A peer
  • A team/course member
  • Someone well known to the mentee
  • Someone the mentee has not met before
  • Someone more senior / experienced than the mentee
  • Someone from a different function or discipline
  • Someone from a different institution or organisation

What are the benefits of Mentoring?

Mentoring offers a range of benefits to the mentee, the organisation and the mentor.

To the organisation:

  • It can improve performance and morale
  • It can build mentoring capacity and foster a more open culture of support and learning
  • It can improve communication and working within an organisation through the promotion of dialogue and understanding

To the mentee:

  • Easier induction for those new to the institution
  • Improved self-confidence, personal awareness and ownership for own development
  • Learning about how to deal with the formal and informal culture of the institution
  • Support for career development
  • Improved insight and understanding related to areas addressed during mentoring

To the mentor:

  • Improved professional satisfaction
  • Increased peer recognition
  • Learning from mentee
  • Development of mentoring skills

How long does a mentoring relationship last?

There is no clear answer to this as there are so many variables to consider. Most mentoring relationships progress through the following phases – though these do inevitably overlap.

  • Introduction
  • Contracting
  • Initiation
  • Cultivation
  • Separation
  • Redefinition

Introduction

This is the time that the mentor and mentee establish contact, begin to build rapport and develop a mentoring relationship.

Contracting

Sometimes this is known as the ‘Commitment’ phase. In order for the relationship to be effective and to satisfy the needs of both the mentor and mentee there must be clear agreement in the following areas:

  • When and where to meet (mentoring should be a focussed and uninterrupted activity)
  • Frequency of meetings
  • Clarity about the boundaries between the mentoring relationship and other key relationships
  • Broad outcomes / areas that will be addressed through the mentoring
  • Commitment to change
  • Establishing a ‘safe’ environment for disclosure.

Initiation

In this period relationships grow and develop in importance for both the mentor and mentee. The expectations of both parties are explored, become firmer, and are realised through a programme of interaction and activity.

Cultivation

During this period, the support provided by the mentor will increase to a maximum level. Both individuals continue to benefit from the relationship, becoming more emotionally linked as more frequent and meaningful interactions occur.

Separation

This occurs overtime with changes in role, levels of need or the ability of the mentor to continue to provide appropriate levels of input.

Redefinition

This is the time when the relationship ends or shifts to a peer or friendship. The mentoring relationship is no longer needed, and the mentor and mentee agree to end the mentoring arrangement.

Obstacles to the success of mentoring

The value from both formal and informal mentoring relationships can be undermined through lack of attention to:

  • Planning and preparation
  • Role clarity
  • Identification and evaluation of outcomes
  • Degree of formality
  • Accessibility of mentoring opportunities
  • Boundary management between mentoring and other relationships

From a relationship perspective the impact of mentoring can be reduced through:

  • Failure to establish rapport
  • Lack of time
  • Lack of clarity about the purpose of the relationship
  • Unrealistic expectations
  • The impact of the mentoring relationship on others, eg colleagues and line manager.

References:

Alred, G., Garvey, B., and Smith, R., Mentoring Pocketbook, 2nd Edition, 2008, Management Pocketbooks Ltd.

Daloz, L.A., Mentor: Guiding the Journey of Adult Learners, 1999, Jossey-Bass Inc. Publishers

Garvey, B., Coaching and Mentoring, 2011, SAGE Publications

Pegg, M., The Art of Mentoring, 2003, Management Books Ltd.

Pugh, E., Mentoring: Progressing Women’s Careers in Higher Education, 2012, Equality Challenge Unit

JK LPDC March 2014