The Importance Of Mentoring

Peer mentoring is one of a range of peer support frameworks used in schools where students provide support to other students. Peer mentoring provides an alternative avenue of support by offering support from the peer group rather than adults. Research has shown that students respond well to peer mentors and feel a connection with someone that is closer to their age and more closely connected to the experience of high school. The mentors serve in a dichotomous role as older more experienced source of support that one can turn to for advice and guidance, while simultaneously serving as a friend and peer that one can relax and have fun with. This is a role that many times adult mentors cannot fulfill, which makes peer mentoring unique and sometimes

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.

“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.

"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."

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.

Mentors are influential, senior organizational members with advanced experience and knowledge committed to providing perception to a mentee’s career development. A mentor supports a mentee’s views of self within a work role as well as it supports the mentor’s sense of self for the valuable wisdom and experience they have to share.

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.

I believe a good mentor should have the ultimate goal of successfully teaching the student, meanwhile, guiding them properly in a manner in which he/she learns by themselves. In the National Honors Society, I have participated in a program called “Mustang Buddies”.

Mentors give you the advantage of learning from someone else’s mistakes. They share the experiences they went through to get to where they are today. By learning about the mistakes and experiences, you no longer need to waste your time. Having a good mentor allows you to find the best and easiest way to almost anything.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Mentor is someone who provides support and encouragement to someone who doesn’t have as much experience or isn’t as qualified as them. It is a relationship that is built on the encouraging of one of the parties and the ability to see the best in them and actively wanting that.