The Mentoring Process

Mentoring involves a manager passing on his/her knowledge and expertise to an employee. Typically, the employee has a mentor who is at management level but not directly involved in his or her work area, so that issue s can be discussed in an impartial and confidential manner.

Over time, organizations have adapted and refined the way that mentoring is used in their companies. For example, mentors now help the person to solve problems, navigate through the culture at a company and even advance their career. This, in turn, will create a person that is ready to lead and manage.

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”.

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.

Mentoring employs similar methods as coaching; however a more personal relationship is formed between the mentor and mentee. A mentor, as Zey (1984) writes, is ‘a person who oversees the career and development of another person, usually a junior, through teaching, counselling, providing psychological support, protecting and at times promoting or sponsoring’.

Mentoring in the workplace can be described as a relationship in which a more experienced colleague uses his or her greater knowledge and understanding of the work or workplace to support the development of a more junior or inexperienced member of staff.

Mentoring takes many forms and has many purposes, however, no uniform definition of mentoring exists (Bochke, 2001). Caffarella (1993) defined mentoring as “intense caring relationships in which person(s) with more experience work with less experienced person(s) to promote both professional

The article suggests that the mentor helps in the development of two critical topics. One topic being a career related subject and the other being a psychological subject. The career related subject has to do with the mentor helping the mentee advance

These mentoring relationships consisted of providing support and encouragement along with a nurturing environment for the new leaders (Enomoto et al., 2000). Although the protégées learned a great deal with skill development and leadership opportunities in advancing their careers, the mentoring experiences benefitted both parties involved. The mentoring relationships were reciprocal and mutual (Enomoto et al., 2000). Not only is the individual perspective of the protégée valuable but also her community perspective. For example, one of the protégées who is a Hispanic assistant principal, who spoke the language of her Hispanic families, felt she could provide a better insight for her principal regarding her connections to that community (Enomoto et al., 2000). Within the mentoring program, mentors appreciated the perspectives of their protégées. Outside of the sharing of information and offering various perspectives, new leaders were looked at as confidantes and a friend.

Mentoring Overview "Leadership mentoring is the formal and informal social construction of professional performance expectations developed through the purposeful interactions between aspiring and practicing principals in the context of authentic practice. This interactive mentoring develops collegial relationships, fosters reciprocal learning between expert and novice, expands leadership capacity and creates a community of practice in which steadily improving role performance is the ultimate goal"(Browne-Ferrigno and Muth, 2006, p. 276). Mentoring focuses more on the informal role in which the mentor provides feedback to the student based on future career planning, interpersonal growth for future success. One-on-one mentoring has been documented as playing a significant in advancing leadership development capabilities in mentees. "[Managers] often motivate their students, unlock previously unrealized skills, and help them achieve world-class levels" (Arnove, 2010, p.47). Mentorship is a personal development teachers have with their students. Mentoring relationships are relatively easy to establish, but keeping the mentee motivated and letting them know long term it's a great transition into young adulthood.

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.

Mentoring is a skilled mindfulness and reinforcing instrument. It is a capable strategy for peopling to progress in their occupations and is getting the opportunity to be growing predominant as its potential is made sense of it. It is a relationship between two people (mentor and mentee) ordinarily working in a near field or having similar experiences. It is a helpful relationship based upon shared trust and respect.

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.

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.