About Ann Rolfe

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Ann Rolfe is internationally recognised as Australia's leading specialist in mentoring, and is available for speaking, training and consulting. Here Ann shares her knowledge and allows you to ask your most pressing questions about mentoring.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

The Mentoring Philosophy

Mentoring is a gift that is shared. It is a relationship that enables purposeful conversation. The conversation assists the mentoree to reflect on their own experience, make informed decisions and act upon the ideas that are generated.

The purpose of mentoring is development. It is about learning not teaching and both mentors and those mentored grow from the experience.

In mentoring, people develop a synergetic relationship through a conversation that enables them to set and achieve goals, make decisions and solve problems. Any person who has the skill to facilitate the mentoring process may be a mentor.Mentoring is enriching and satisfying for both partners.

Many Ways to Mentor
In the past, mentoring has been a one-to-one process, most often informal and unstructured. Contemporary mentoring takes many forms and though informal mentoring often occurs naturally and spontaneously, more structured approaches are emerging. Ways of mentoring include:
  • Informal – conversations that happen by chance or by arrangement
  • Formal – relationships in a structured program
  • Peer mentoring - two colleagues mentor each other
  • Reverse-mentoring - executives mentored by non-executives
  • Cascading mentoring – each level of an organization mentor those below
  • Group mentoring - one mentor meets with several mentoree’s
  • Mentoring round-tables - peers interact in a group mentoring conversation
  • Mentoring circles - facilitated group, each person mentors one person and is mentored by another
  • Mastermind mentoring and business coaching- experts coach a novices

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