Mentorship is a relationship in which a more
experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or
less knowledgeable person. The mentor may be older or younger than the person
being mentored, but she or he must have a certain area of expertise.
Mentorship experience and relationship structure
affect the amount of psychosocial support, career guidance, role modeling, and
communication that occurs in the mentoring relationships in which the protégés
and mentors engaged.
"Mentoring" is a process that always
involves communication and is relationship-based, but its precise definition is
elusive, with more than 50 definitions currently in use. One definition of the
many that have been proposed, is
Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission
of knowledge, social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the
recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional development; mentoring
entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and during a sustained period
of time, between a person who is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge,
wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less
(the protégé).
Historical
The roots of the practice are lost in antiquity. The
word itself was inspired by the character of Mentor in Homer's Odyssey. Though
the actual Mentor in the story is a somewhat ineffective old man, the goddess
Athena takes on his appearance in order to guide young Telemachus in his time
of difficulty.
Historically significant systems of mentorship include
the guru–disciple tradition practiced in Hinduism and Buddhism, Elders, the
discipleship system practiced by Rabbinical Judaism and the Christian church,
and apprenticing under the medieval guild system.
In the United States, advocates for workplace equity
in the second half of the twentieth century popularized the term “mentor” and
concept of career mentorship as part of a larger social capital lexicon—which
also includes terms such as glass ceiling, bamboo ceiling, networking, role
model, and gatekeeper—serving to identify and address the problems barring
non-dominant groups from professional success. Mainstream business literature
subsequently adopted the terms and concepts, promoting them as pathways to
success for all career climbers. In 1970 these terms were not in the general
American vocabulary; by the mid-1990s they had become part of everyday speech.
Techniques
1. Accompanying: making a commitment in a caring way,
which involves taking part in the learning process side-by-side with the
learner.
2. Sowing: mentors are often confronted with the
difficulty of preparing the learner before he or she is ready to change. Sowing
is necessary when you know that what you say may not be understood or even
acceptable to learners at first but will make sense and have value to the
mentee when the situation requires it.
3. Catalyzing: when change reaches a critical level of
pressure, learning can escalate. Here the mentor chooses to plunge the learner
right into change, provoking a different way of thinking, a change in identity
or a re-ordering of values.
4. Showing: this is making something understandable,
or using your own example to demonstrate a skill or activity. You show what you
are talking about, you show by your own behavior.
5. Harvesting: here the mentor focuses on
"picking the ripe fruit": it is usually used to create awareness of
what was learned by experience and to draw conclusions. The key questions here
are: "What have you learned?", "How useful is it?"
There are two broad types of mentoring relationships:
formal and informal. Formal mentoring relationships are set up by an
administrative unit or office in a company or organization, which solicits and
recruits qualified individuals who are willing to mentor, provides training to
the mentors, and then helps to match the mentors up with a person in need of
mentoring. While formal mentoring systems contain numerous structural and
guidance elements, they still typically allow the mentor and mentee to have an
active role in choosing who they want to work with. Formal mentoring programs
which simply assign mentors to mentees without giving these individuals a say
have not performed well. Even though a mentor and a mentee may seem perfectly
matched "on paper", in practice, they may have different working or
learning styles. As such, giving the mentor and the mentee the opportunity to
help select who they want to work with is a widely used approach. Informal
mentoring occurs without the use of structured recruitment, mentor training and
matching services. Informal mentoring arrangements can develop naturally from
business networking situations in which a more experienced individual meets a
new employee, and the two strike up a rapport.
In addition to these broad types, there are also peer,
situational and supervisory mentoring relationships. These tend to fall under
the categories of formal and informal mentoring relationships. Informal
relationships develop on their own between partners. Formal mentoring, on the
other hand, refers to a structured process supported by the organization and
addressed to target populations. Youth mentoring programs assist at-risk
children or youth who lack role models and sponsors. In business, formal
mentoring is part of talent management strategies which are used to groom key
employees, newly hired graduates, high potential-employees and future leaders.
The matching of mentor and mentee is often done by a mentoring coordinator, often
with the help of a computerized database registry. The use of the database
helps to match up mentees with mentors who have the type of experience and
qualifications they are seeking.
There are formal mentoring programs that are
values-oriented, while social mentoring and other types focus specifically on
career development. Some mentorship programs provide both social and vocational
support. In well-designed formal mentoring programs, there are program goals,
schedules, training (for both mentors and protégés), and evaluation. In 2004
Metizo created the first mentoring certification for companies and business
schools in order to guarantee the integrity and effectiveness of formal
mentoring. Certification is attributed jointly by the organization and an
external expert.
There are many kinds of mentoring relationships from
school or community-based relationships to e-mentoring relationships. These
mentoring relationships vary and can be influenced by the type of mentoring
relationship that is in effect. That is whether it has come about as a formal
or informal relationship. Also there are several models have been used to
describe and examine the sub-relationships that can emerge. For example, Buell
describes how mentoring relationships can develop under a cloning model,
nurturing model, friendship model and apprenticeship model. The cloning model
is about the mentor trying to "produce a duplicate copy of him or her
self." The nurturing model takes more of a "parent figure, creating a
safe, open environment in which mentee can both learn and try things for him-or
herself." The friendship model are more peers "rather than being
involved in a hierarchical relationship." Lastly, the apprenticeship is
about less "personal or social aspects... and the professional
relationship is the sole focus".
In the sub-groups of formal and informal mentoring
relationships: peer mentoring relationships are relationships where individuals
are at the same skill training, similar positions and stages of career.
However, one person may be more knowledgeable in a certain aspect or another,
but they can help each other to progress in their work. A lot of time, peer
relationships provide a lot of support, empathy and advice because the
situations are quite similar.
Situational
mentoring: Short-term relationships in which a person mentors
for a specific purpose. This could be a company bringing an expert in regarding
social media, or internet safety. This expert can mentor employees to make them
more knowledgeable about a specific topic or skill.
Supervisory
mentoring: This kind of mentoring has 'go to' people who are
supervisors. These are people who have answers to many questions, and can
advise to take the best plan of action. This can be a conflict of interest
relationship because many supervisors do not feel comfortable also being a
mentor.
Mentoring
circles: Participants from all levels of the organization
propose and own a topic. They then meet in groups to discuss the topic, which
motivates them to grow and become more knowledgeable. Flash mentoring is ideal
for job shadowing, reverse mentoring, and more.
Flash
mentoring: Creates a low-pressure environment for mentoring that
focuses on single meetings rather than a traditional, long-term mentoring
relationship.
Benefits
Meta-analysis of 112 individual research studies found
mentoring has significant behavioral, attitudinal, health-related, relational,
motivational, and career benefits. Especially in the workplace, there are many
benefits to developing a mentorship program for new and current employees.
Career development: Setting up a career development
mentoring program for employees enables an organization to help junior
employees to learn the skills and behaviours from senior employees that the
junior employees need to advance to higher-responsibility positions. This type
of mentoring program can help to align organizational goals with employees'
personal career goals (of progressing within the organization). It gives
employees the ability to advance professionally and learn more about their
work. This collaboration also gives employees a feeling of engagement with the
organization, which can lead to better retention rates and increased employee
satisfaction.
High potential mentoring: The most talented employees
in organizations tend to be difficult to retain, as they are usually seeking
greater challenges and responsibilities, and they are likely to leave for a
different organization if they do not feel that they are being given the
opportunity to develop. Top talent, whether in an innovation or management
role, have incredible potential to make great things happen for an
organization. Creating a mentoring program for high-potential employees that
gives them one-on-one guidance from senior leaders can help to build the
engagement of these talented employees, give them the opportunity to develop,
and increase their retention in the organization.
Reverse mentoring: While mentoring typically involves
a more experienced, typically older employee or leader providing guidance to a
younger employee, the opposite approach can also be used. In the 2000s, with
the rise of digital innovations, Internet applications and social media, in
some cases, new, young employees are more familiar with these technologies than
senior employees in the organizations. The younger generations can help the
older generations to expand and grow towards current trends. Everyone has
something to bring to the table, this creates a "two way street"
within companies where younger employees can see the larger picture, and senior
employees can learn from young employees.
Knowledge transfer mentoring: Employees must have a
certain set of skills in order to accomplish the tasks at hand. Mentoring is a
great approach to help employees get organized, and give them access to an
expert that can give feedback, and help answer questions that they may not know
where to find answers to.
Mentorship provides critical benefits to individuals
as well as organizations. Although mentorship can be important for an
individual’s career advancement, in the United States it historically has been
most apparent in relation to the advancement of women and minorities in the
workplace. Until recent decades, American men in dominant ethnic groups gained
most of the benefits of mentorship without consciously identifying it as an
advancement strategy. American women and minorities, in contrast, more
pointedly identified and pursued mentorship in the second half of the twentieth
century as they sought to achieve the professional success they had long been
denied.
In a 1958 study, Margaret Cussler showed that, for each
female executive she interviewed who did not own her own company, “something—or
someone—gave her a push up the ladder while others halted on a lower rung.”
Cussler concluded that the relationship between the “sponsor and protégé” (the
vocabulary of “mentorship” was not yet in common use) was the “magic formula”
for success. By the late 1970s, numerous publications had established the
centrality of mentorship to business success for everyone and particularly for
women trying to break into the male-dominated business world. These
publications noted the many specific benefits provided by mentorship, which
included insider information, education, guidance, moral support, inspiration,
sponsorship, an example to follow, protection, promotion, the ability to “bypass
the hierarchy,” the projection of the superior’s “reflected power,” access to
otherwise invisible opportunities, and tutelage in corporate politics.
This literature also showed the value of these
benefits. A Harvard Business Review survey of 1,250 top executives published in
1979, for example, showed that most had been mentored or sponsored and that
those who received such assistance reported higher income, a better education,
a quicker path to achievement, and more job satisfaction than those who did
not. The literature particularly emphasized the necessity of mentoring for
businesswomen’s success. For example, although women made up less than one
percent of the executives in the Harvard Business Review survey, all of these
women reported being mentored. In subsequent decades, as mentoring became a
widely valued phenomenon in the United States, women and minorities in
particular continued to develop mentoring relationships consciously as they sought
professional advancement.
The
Mentor
Mentoring is a relationship between two people with
the goal of professional and personal development. The "mentor" is
usually an experienced individual who shares knowledge, experience, and advice
with a less experienced person, or "mentee."
Tips
for starting a Mentorship Program:
Find a way to coach each employee to become
exceptional in one thing, and not the same thing for each employee. Then
recognize them for how well they are exceptional at that one thing. Keep on
recognizing them by asking them to mentor others in that particular area of
expertise.
You do not have to be perfect to be an effective
mentor.
As a Mentor, you will teach skills and character.
Skills are taught intentionally, where character is taught unintentionally.
You should teach those that are willing and capable to
grow.
The mentee should be on a personal growth plan that is
specific to that person.
There are four steps
1. I
complete the task. You watch and learn.
2. We
do the task together.
3. You
do the task. I’ll watch and offer feedback.
4. You
do the task.
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
― Benjamin Franklin
“True Mentors, don't make their mentees a clone of themselves”
-The Pygmalion Complex
