A Short Note On External Mentorship For Employers

Zachary presents the mentorship as a learning partnership between mentor and mentee. This reinforces my understanding of the nature of adult learning and the notion that the mentor is less an authority figure and more of a facilitator. In my work as a mentor for special education directors, I will utilize Zachary’s four-stage approach for encouraging learning and promoting change. This reading has helped me to see mentorship as a process with distinctive components, as defined by Zachary (2012). During the preparation phase, I will focus on ensuring I fully understand the reasoning behind the mentoring relationship (Zachary 2012). I will accomplish this through personal reflection and a collaborative discussion with the mentee. I will remember that this phase sets the tone for the relationship. The next step, negotiating, is the business stage and the time when mentoring partners come to an agreement on the learning goals and define the content and process of the relationship (Zachary 2012). It is essential that during this phase I facilitate the conversation to enable a productive meeting and set measurable goals with aligned activities that will ensure they attain their goals. Part of the stage that I need to work on is creating a shared understanding of boundaries and limits. I will accomplish this through communicating the delineation between the mentor and mentee’s role and responsibilities. The third stage, the enabling phase, takes the longest amount of time because it is when the implementation of the learning occurs (Zachary 2012). During this period, I will support the mentee’s learning by communicating the goals and providing thoughtful and timely feedback and encouragement. I will ensure that additional time is dedicated to supporting the mentee’s work. Before reading this book, I was less confident during this phase and

Clutterbuck & Megginson (1999, p.17) describe mentoring as being like ‘standing in front of a mirror with a trusted other, who can help you see things that you do not know how to see, or that have become too familiar for you to notice’. It is a helping relationship between an individual with potential and an individual with expertise. This multi-dimensional relationship is a partnership between those in similar roles, who can support each other. A number of roles of the mentor have been listed by Bolton (2010, p.193): role model, enabler, teacher, encourager, counsellor, befriender, facilitator, coach, confidante, supporter and ‘un-learner’. To be successful roles and responsibilities of those involved need to be clear and they need to be matched to each other and understand expectations of them.

It takes a lot of commitment to be a mentor, an appropriate meeting time needs to be discussed between mentor and mentee so that it doesn't conflict with family, school, and/or social life. Mentors are usually provided for: troubled teens, young children with busy parents that work, children or teens with special needs such as Autism or ADHD, or anyone under or over the age of 18 who needs to have one on one time with someone they trust and can talk to confidentially.

In life, we all have a mentor who looks out for us. A figure that stands out and serves as a foundation for how our future ends up. Mentors can be our closest relatives, our best friends, or even people that we’ve never met, just those who stand out to us. Mentors teach us principles that they want us to follow and think is best. They mold us with their knowledge and shape us into people that they want us to be.

In my next mentoring relationship, no matter if I’m the mentor or mentee, I will apply the skills I have learned through this program with the hopes of improving upon them still, through practice. I will greet my new mentor or mentee with open arms, knowing that they are giving me the opportunity to learn more, to practice my skills, and to help make others better in turn.

Mentoring relationships has its roots beginning in ancient Greek mythology, when Odysseus (a.k.a. Ulysses) entrusted Mentor with his son, Telemachus, while he left to fight the Trojan War. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, left home for 20 years on the famous journey that Homer ccalled the Odyssey. Mentor was responsible for raising Telemachus, shaping his character and helping him make wise decisions as he grew up to be a man. Eventually, Telemachus begins searching for his father, and Mentor joined him. The myth says that the Greek goddess Athena assumed Mentor’s form for the purpose of giving advice to Odysseus (Shea, 1997). Mentor’s name, with a lower-case “m,” has passed into our language as a shorthand term for wise and trusted counselor, advisor, teacher and friend. Mentoring is where a person invests time and energy to help another person grow and learn (Shea, 1997). “Mentor served as a coach, teacher, guardian, protector, and kindly parent. Mentor shared wisdom, promoted Telemachus’s career, and actively engaged him in a deep personal relationship (BOOK – Johnson –Ridley, xxx, p. xv). Like today the mentoring model is pairing a mentor and a mentee where the mentor is a role model and provides direction and guidance.

Mentoring is relationship orientated – it provides a safe environment where the mentore shares any issues which can affect their mentors professional and personal success. Mentoring also focuses on work/life balance, self confidence and self perception.

Mentor training will be completed by all new mentors and maintained for all current mentors. Training documentation and instruction will be provided electronically or manually through the support of the program selection committee.

Mentoring for the mentor is about challenging himself to perform to greater capabilities while nurturing a mentee and stretching them to realise their full potential. Mentors counsel, tutor and guide their mentees in developing themselves.

Mentoring is a strategy that is beneficial to increased productivity in the workplace as well as a fulfilling love for one’s career. Mentoring can take place at many levels. It can occur at an education level or as we enter into prospective careers. Those who miss out on the opportunity to be mentored, have a lower chance to perform at high levels or receive positions that are more successful. Mentors and protégé’s work on challenging tasks and activities together, in an effort to enhance the skills of the protégé. The earlier a protégé is taken under the wing of a mentor proves extremely beneficial.

to be established. (L.Kutilek and G.Earnest.2001) This too supports Phillip and Spratts findings who also argues that these relationships benefit more when there is regular contact between the mentor and the young person. (K.Phillip and J.Spratt.2007) The young person interviewed in this enquiry project had contact with his mentor twice a week Monday to Friday during term time.

Mentorship is very important in the workplace especially in the area of training and development. The mentor-protégé relationship is a much needed relationship that begins in the early career stage and this relationship involves the current or new employees and the supervisor or other colleagues that provide work-related guidance. The relationship itself is comprehensive and involves “educational, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual development” (Greenhaus,, Callanan, & Godshalk, 2010, p 211). One of the initial task of the early career the establishment of the career field which involves the gaining of the workplace competence, learn what is needed to excel in the organization, and to gain acceptance in the workplace to be recognized as the valued employee. There are many ways of achieving the above mentioned advantages in the workplace which one main method is through the use of the mentorship program.

A Learning Mentor is a relatively new concept in the field of education and is used within schools to support them in raising standards.

Attached is the proposal to implement a mentoring program at Anderson, Lower, Whitlow P.C. In early summer, ALW hired fifteen recently graduated individuals and 12 have already taken positions at other firms. There needs to be a system in place to develop and foster relationships for these individuals within the firm. This firm has a high turnover rate of new hires; currently, the turnover rate is 85%. Firms that are considered the Big Four are offering mentoring programs that make their employees invested in the company’s future. Unfortunately, if ALW does not start to compete with this issue, more employees will be lost to the Big Four Firms.

From the organisations standpoint mentoring is a cost effective way of training and developing new staff, and it helps retain existing staff by giving them more responsibility. It is argued that with the underlying causes behind facilitated mentoring lying in cost effectiveness, does this underlying tenet prevent a real chemistry existing between the mentor and the mentee.