Becoming a Mentor

Before anyone over the age of 18 is able to become a mentor they must go through rigorous training to ensure that they are capable of providing support and guidance to troubled youth (DuBois, & Neville, 1997, Grossman, & Rhodes, 2002, Moodie, & Fisher, 2009). Once they have gone through training they must be able to commit to 12 months mentoring, so that the children

To be a good mentor you have to have great qualities like being helpful and being really good at giving good constructive criticism. Whomever you're mentoring should receive information that is both positive and negative. You want to makes sure you give pros and cons so that your mentee can learn from them. (Patterson) Some social activities that you can do in mentoring programs include talking about life experiences, having lunch together, and visiting the mentor's home for a bonding experience. (Wexler) Although most mentoring programs usually have short durations and are claimed to be a “waste of money,” they are beneficial to girls because they prevent peer pressure, diseases, and pregnancies; encourage girls to be more mannerable, respectful, and ladylike; and results in kids being more likely to graduate high school and attend college.

This study is limited to the freshman mentor program at one high school in a 30 high school district located in Maryland. Data was collected from a representative group of mentors. Interviews were limited to discussion of the role of the mentor in working with the freshmen mentees. Although many high schools have freshmen mentor programs, each school develops a unique program to fit the needs of the students feeding into their school. Data was collected from a small representative group of mentors and they were all

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but to reveal to him his own. - Benjamin Disrael This quote is similar to a Chinese Proverb that says “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”(Chinese Proverb). Both essentially say the same thing, and that is, you can only help someone so much until they need to realize they are capable of doing great things on their own. Higher Risk youth benefit from guidance, but once they have figured everything out they can move on alone. These two quotes apply to mentoring because, mentoring is like showing someone the way to life.

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.

An advantage of mentoring is that it helps to acclimatise less successful workers to the job and organisational requirements. By having a "go to" person to ask questions, discuss scenarios and generally learn the nuances of the company, the mentee can become a productive member much more quickly and never feel that he has nowhere to turn for help. The mentee can gain the sense of achievement that comes from the mentor's feedback and assessment of his progress. The mentee's quest to gain the mentor's approval can serve as a motivating force to continue to improve his performance. The mentor can gain satisfaction from knowing that she is helping an individual and can take a measure of pride in her accomplishments. For a mentor that has already achieved a great deal of success, she can look at the process as a way of "giving back”.

"Mentoring is a special quality, skill set and attitude," she says. "The benefits are not only between the mentor and mentee, but the future generations."

We often meet wise people who we trust to guide us. Some consider these individuals to be mentors because they support or influence us in a special way. A mentor can be anyone, such as a someone who guides you through a tough job, or even your mom and dad! What makes all these people similar is that they all have likeable qualities. The qualities that I think make a good mentor are patience, determination, and a good-listener.

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.

The term mentoring has several variations and the definition has evolved over the years. According to Dubois and Karcher (2005), mentoring is described as a relationship nurtured and cultivated between a younger person and a more mature, wiser individual leading them to success through guidance and support. Rhodes and Dubois (2008) later developed the meaning of mentoring involving a connection between an older adult and an unrelated child providing continuous advice, training, and encouragement from the adult to enrich the temperament of the child. The definitions seem to be the same but researchers aim to be more specific and intentional in the

The benefits of mentoring is an important tool to help address dropout risk factors and help ensure that young people are supported in their effort to graduate from high school. Youth mentoring is a simple, yet powerful concept. An adult provides guidance, support and encouragement to help a young person achieve

Functions provided by a mentor include both career oriented and psychosocial. Career oriented functions are done to “enhance career advancement” of the protégé (Greenhaus et al 2010). Career functions include sponsorship, increased exposure and visibility, coaching, protection, and challenging but doable assignments. Psychosocial functions are done to “enhance sense of competence and effectiveness” of the protégé (Greenhaus, 2010, p 212). These functions involve being a role model, providing acceptance and confirmation, being a counselor, and providing

Learning mentors tend to work on a one to one level or in small numbered groups, a learning mentor must be a good listener, be able to encourage and motivate and act as a role model and encourage the build up of a mutually respectful relationship (Hayward, 2001).

Accompanied with the current shift towards more organic organisation structures and more emphasis on the learning organisation, mentoring provides a more all round experience to the mentees by getting them confident with their role with the organisation. It also improves communication throughout the organisation by allowing mentees to give feedback and learn in a not so formal fashion which helps people feel more relaxed and develops the formal and informal culture of the organisation.

As part of my introduction, I would like to mention that my research project is about mentoring where I have chosen ‘questioning’ as my strategy. In this report, I will discuss in detail about my ‘Mentoring through Questioning’, which is a key for my research project report. Here, I will cover the project’s context in which it was set, my aims and focus of the project, my justification on why I have chosen mentoring through questioning and the types of questions being used during this project, in support of the relevant literature. And then eventually, I will mention about the interactive sessions between a mentor and mentee, the reflection or the perspectives, specifying the self-analysis as well as the required feedback from mentee as part of the research strategy. Later, I will conclude this report by mentioning about the effectiveness of mentoring sessions and the future actions planned for my skills development.