What Motivates Mentors?

There are two main types of mentors, Leonie Stanfield, of Careertalk, suggested when we discussed this recently, mentoring from competence or mentoring for challenge. The majority mentor from competence, sharing their expertise. Stanfield, who is completing her masters in career development, believes that mentoring from competence reinforces the mentor's self-image as a good listener and someone who gives. It is powerful motivation. "Mentoring reinforces their identity and reaffirms their confidence." She said. Mentoring from competence allows one to remain in the comfort zone.

A different person values the challenge of learning and self-discovery. It's "a brave and rare person who is willing to experience mentoring from a more vulnerable place." Stanfield observed. This kind of mentor steps into the unknown, trusting the process. They understand that in facilitating another's journey to insight they uncover their own. In exploring the needs and goals of another, they reveal their own and in eliciting the values of another they examine their own. For them, mentoring is not so much an affirmation as mutual growth. They do it because they are committed to joint learning. They are learning about themselves at the same time as they assist someone else.

It is not unusual for volunteer to begin with the mentoring from competence model and move to mentoring for challenge. A shift takes place when mentors are equipped with a process for leading a conversation that does not depend on expertise in their field to produce outcomes. Introduce a framework of the mentoring conversation early in your communication to potential mentors. This will provide the security that the mentoring from competence group need and the springboard that will inspire those who will mentor for challenge. That's how mentoring works!

Why You Need To Train People For Mentoring

The purpose of training is to enable mentors and mentorees to establish effective relationships. Some programs simply introduce people and leave them to "get on with it". Occasionally, this works. But people need to know what is expected of them, how to go about it and why it is important and you need to be confident they have the skills for mentoring.

Why Train?

• Building a relationship of rapport and trust can be tricky when there are many individual differences;
• Managing people is different from mentoring people; and 
• Motivation will be critical to success.

Mentoring is different from other workplace relationships. It is professional and personal, it deals with rational and emotional motivation and it non-directive but offers guidance and advice! The paradoxical nature of mentoring needs to be understood and the key skills developed.
In addition, participants usually need ongoing personal support and reassurance. Establishing an interactive network of participants will add value. This is most likely to happen when participants meet and work together in training sessions.

Training Mentors and Mentorees

The role of the mentor, communication styles, strategies and practical techniques for applying the mentoring process can be explored in workshops. It is usually beneficial to provide mentors with an initial session separately from the mentorees so that they are able to discuss any issues candidly.

Mentorees need to be primed to make the most of the mentoring experience. Their responsibilities, communication and goal setting are topics you want to cover in their training.

Bringing mentors and mentorees together for a workshop is highly desirable. This way you can enable them to identify expectations of each other in a non-threatening group process. You can also ensure that they have a common understanding of mentoring etiquette, procedures and reporting. Being part of a group reduces the feeling of isolation and you can set up a mechanism for ongoing group contact. Within this workshop mentoring pairs can have a structured first meeting to break the ice. Debriefing the meeting as a group, you can draw out do's and don'ts for effective future meetings.

The Training Process

The process of the training is as important as the content and several issues are likely to impact on your mentoring program:

• Current management styles;
• Seniority of the mentors; and
• Introducing the mentoring role to busy people may be challenging.

Consider a range of delivery methods for education and training. You want to educate not only prospective mentors and mentorees but managers and staff not directly involved (see our webinar How to Get The Mentoring Message Across). You can do this through personal communication, management briefings, staff information sessions, print, audio-visual or web-based push/pull resources. Push resources are those you email out and pull is material that is on the internet for them to access that you have to draw them to.

Effective mentoring results from a set of attitudes, behaviours, skills and motivation. Training, complemented by ongoing support and follow-up, significantly increases your return on investment. That's how mentoring works.

Extract from; Rolfe, A. (2006) How To Design And Run Your Own Mentoring Program. Mentoring Works.

Get Strategic!

Post GFC, you need to be confident that any investment will produce the return promised and be a secure and wise use of your funds. The resources you put into mentoring will add to your triple bottom line but only if you are strategic in its planning and implementation.

Why Mentoring Now?

It is vital to show employees you value them and see a future for them. Employee disengagement means lower productivity and poor customer service resulting in higher costs and lower revenue. Now, more than ever, you need to build human capital and organisational capability. So, implementing a mentoring strategy that develops people and brings out their best is a very positive move.

However, mentoring is not a magic bullet, it won't fix everything! So choose wisely what you target as its goals. Think about the purpose of mentoring and what you believe it can achieve.

• Why do you want mentoring?
• What are the needs mentoring will meet or gaps it can fill?
• How will mentoring make a difference?

Most importantly, in an organisational context, consider: where will mentoring deliver the most value? Look at your organisation's strategic aims this year. What are the corporate objectives? What are the challenges? Where could mentoring contribute real benefit?

Planning Your Mentoring Strategy

Only when you have answers to the question of "why mentoring now?" can you progress strategically and specify aims and objectives for mentoring. You need to decide whom you'll target to participate in mentoring and then determine the outcomes that would indicate success. You can then plan a program of activities that will support people to produce the desired results.

Resources

You'll need to plan the logistics required to adequately support mentoring and secure the necessary resources. These include people, material, time and money. Mentoring is a very cost-effective strategy for individual and organisational development and yet under-resourcing is common. Invest in the planning process so that you know the budget required from the outset. You will need to identify and document the quantifiable as well as qualitative return on investment to make a business case for investment.

Mentoring represents the very best of human endeavours. It establishes connections and builds relationships. It provides personal and professional growth that benefits people and organisations. Get strategic with your mentoring because that's how mentoring works!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has an historical basis that is not unique to the USA. Most cultures give thanks in an annual harvest festival. The work of cultivating, sowing and tending fields is needed to produce the necessities of life. What did you plant, nurture, grow and gather, this year?

At this time of year, it is worthwhile to look back and give thanks. Experiences of all kinds are abundant with opportunities to learn and grow personally and professionally. What will you celebrate, mourn or realise?

If you were a mentor, chances are you may not know just how much of a contribution you made. Marcy Blochowiak said: “Never underestimate the power of one person to have an impact on this world, touching one person at a time … the mark you leave on people will endure and extend beyond your sight and beyond your reach.”

If you were mentored, it is likely that you had an impact on your mentor too. Most mentors find that the conversations they have allow them to pause, reflect and gain insight themselves.

With friends, family and mentors, we can enjoy and give thanks for what we have today. The new-year is fertile ground just waiting for us to plan and prepare for what we intend to create. That’s how mentoring works.

Reference: Blochowiak, M. (2005) No Glass Ceiling, Just Blue Sky. Simple Truths, Illinois.

Ann Rolfe

Mentoring Works

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