Mentoring involves a trusted relationship where a mentor acts as a role model and advocate to help a mentee learn and develop through sharing wisdom and enabling thinking, with the aim of better performance, productivity and effectiveness through creating a partnership for mutual development and learning.

1. Mentoring
“ the art of helping another learn”
Alan Adair
Extra Dimension

2. Workshop Overview
 Why mentoring?
– Enables learning transfer (Recent study assessed that all
investment in mgmt development only gave 1% ROI benefit)
– Significant impact as a success factor for leader development
– Reinforces and supports ‘future focussed’ behaviour
(challenging the status quo)
– Aids retention and motivation of our best people
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3. Workshop Overview
 Agree the role of the Mentor
 The aim of mentoring
 Mentoring Skills – principles and practice
 Running a mentoring meeting – a template
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4. The role of the Mentor (think Yoda!)
– Trusted advisor
– Organisational advocate
– Coach
– Counsellor
– Networker
– Offering a ‘seat on the stool’
Friend, partner, magician, sage, superhero….
What is mentoring NOT…?
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5. The aim of mentoring
Betterment:
Better performance, greater productivity and higher effectiveness
By:
– Helping another to learn and grow
– Creating a partnership
– Mutual development – both go on a learning journey
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6. Brainstorm-
 The pitfalls / traps of being a mentor (attitude)
 The qualities of good mentors
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7. The pitfalls / traps of being a mentor
 I can help – tendency to want / need to feel
good about yourself as a rescuer
 I know best – your esteem being built by their
gratitude (how might you feel if they find a better
mentor?)
 I can help you get ahead - can end up as a
sinister ‘I’ll scratch your back, etc. etc
 You need me – inviting dependence (leading to
disempowerment and resentment)
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8. The qualities of good mentors
 Balance
 Truth
 Trust
 Abundance
 Passion
 Courage
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9. Mentoring Skills
Work in pairs:
 One uses the opportunity to talk through a real issue or
concern.
 Other:
– Listens carefully (summarise or ask questions of clarification)
– Checks level of feeling
– Use questions that seek to understand, create insight
– Don’t: offer solutions / Judge / Take the airspace
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10. Great mentor questions
 What have you learned that surprised you?
 How is this different / the same?
 What are the key implications for you?
 If you could do that again, what would you do differently?
The questions that work best are the one’s that provoke higher level thinking and synthesis,
that require the mentee to dig deeper and search for answers.
The clue to when you are getting it right – when there are ah-ha’s.
One important tip: avoid the question Why?
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11. Running a mentoring meeting – a template
Creating a respectful learning space:
Before the meeting:
Get yourself in a good state for mentoring – relaxed, learner focussed, space, privacy, re-focus (check
your notes)
Opening:
Help the mentee to get to the same state – and make a positioning statement ‘last time we met you
were aiming to…’
The body of the meeting
Focus on enabling and facilitating thinking, discovery and learning. Self monitor – if you get it wrong,
point it out and fix it!
Closing the meeting
Ask learner to summarise and set goals for interim period. Schedule next meeting – agree what to11
note
and where to start next time.

12. First and Last meetings
a) the first meeting:
Check what they want (goals and aims) and how they want to work with you, check how you
will manage process and feedback and make an explicit statement of your commitment to
becoming a good mentor with their support.
a) the last meeting:
Know when it’s happening!
Make a ritual of it and celebrate.
A solid send-off with gifts of confidence, esteem, respect and renewal
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13. A comparison of Personal Development techniques
Teaching & Training Coaching Mentoring Counselling
Role model, advocate,
supporter
Focus on continual
Transfer specific new Represents the Focus on pain,
Intention development to do the
skills, knowledge standards values and distress or trauma
job well
vision of the
organisation
Class /Group/Learning 1:1, or 1: small group 1:1 Shares wisdom 1:1 Person centred,
Approach
Sets +various media GROW or similar Enables thinking range of approaches
Mentor:
Trainer: Coach: Valued, trusted and Counsellor or
Skilled in learning Skilled in coaching respected from within Therapist:
Roles Requirements design and delivery / techniques and usually protégés world. Usually skilled &
facilitation. the job/work Skilled in building qualified.
Expert in subject requirements empowering Supervision required
relationships
Increased skill & Career advancement
Increased
Outcome competence in specific and realisation of Emotional well-being
Performance
area potential
All require rapport & advanced listening questioning and reflecting skills. 13
Common Skills All use goal-setting and action planning