Elmore The Navigators : Analysis

“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.

"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."

Establishing an effective mentoring relationship reminds me of the ancient African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child," meaning that the work of raising a child cannot be done alone; an entire community must participate in providing extensive social support that child rearing necessitates. It is very rare for children in any society to grow into functioning adults without some kind of interacting from the community at large.

Mentoring is a process where a more experience person creates a supportive relationship with an inexperienced, mostly younger person with the aim of providing information and advice. The process of mentoring must benefit both parties.

Over the course of the past few weeks, this course has enabled me to put to practice some of the basics of mentoring in a practical setting. In this case paper, I will document the final coaching session between my co-worker and myself. As always, before getting started I worked on a pre-coaching plan in order to lay the foundation for our meeting and help myself prepare for when I meet with my mentee. Next, I will discuss the facts of the coaching session and how well we were able to accomplish the goals of the meeting. Then the different successes and challenges will be mentioned as well as the lessons I learned from each. Finally, I will reflect on the areas of myself or my coaching style that need improvement and how I plan to implement those changes. First let’s take a look at what went in to developing the pre-coaching plan for this meeting.

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.

They helped mentors and protégés develop relationships that centered around goal-setting. They met weekly for 60-90 minutes. Mentors kept journals about their protégés, and were able to write about their progress. Protégés also responded to open-ended surveys about their relationships. Program directors observed mentor/protégé interactions. Seven dominant themes and their importance were demonstrated through the mentoring relationships. These themes were discovered through the use of an open-coding system. Specific examples of how protégés were impacted, including quotes from the journal entries of the mentors, revealed the progress made through those relationships. The data analysis used a grounded theory approach in which the researchers generated a theoretical

Embedded within my vision for learning and leading are my teaching and mentoring philosophies. Lifted from that vision, my mentoring philosophy includes the belief that mentoring that is grounded by a contextual relationship with goals that are clearly communicated, that fosters a cognitive relationship, and that is developed in a culturally responsive environment, which is empowering and engaging for the mentor(s) and mentee(s). In support of the mission and goals of the mentoring relationship, the mentor fosters a vision that is connected to the values and hopes for the future of the institution, community, and the mentee. It is collaboration for learning that is co-constructed through a thoughtful development and action on the part of all

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.

My interest and belief in the importance of mentoring are, of course, informed in large part by my personal experiences. What I hope to share with you some of my experiences over the years, give you a somewhat broader concept of how I view mentoring beyond the more traditional look and then challenge all of you, both senior and newer members. Don’t let your hesitations hold you back from one of the most beneficial tools to developing your role as a leader.

This essay will start by defining mentoring, and giving a brief understanding of mentoring. This essay will then go on to identify and evaluate a number of key factors that may influence the effectiveness of a mentoring relationship. This essay will focus on the example of mentoring within schools and a learning mentor to be more specific.

Implementing a strong mentoring program that fosters individual and personal growth within the company is vital for the future of this firm. This includes setting up and maintaining a mentoring program. The mentoring program will be set up with individuals from all levels of achievement, that are willing to devote a portion of their time to the firm’s prosperity.

With the development of the more organic and less formal organisational structures the role of mentors has shifted with these changes. Unlike previously where mentors where seen as formal trainers who taught newcomers the processes and got them acquainted with the cultures and the systems within the organisation. Which required good interpersonal skills and a good knowledge of the activity or tasks the mentee would have to undertake, and be able to effectively relay or demonstrate the tasks or activities to the mentee. As opposed to more recently where a mentor would have to be more of an emotional counselor and demonstrate more skills than were traditionally required from

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.