70 Business Spotlight 3/2020 CAREERS & MANAGEMENT
The mentoring process
You and your mentor need to build a relationship. So, if you don’t
know each other, you should spend your first meeting finding
out about each other and discussing your objectives. Indeed,
your objectives should influence both who you choose as a men-
tor and how long the mentoring will last. You and your mentor
need to understand that mentoring requires trust and openness
and that you must both respect the confidentiality of whatever
is discussed.
You need to be clear about why you want to be mentored and
how you think your mentor can help you. In their book One Min-
ute Mentoring, Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz- Ortiz recommend
that the two of you agree on a clear mission statement. Keeping
a diary could also be helpful.
You should decide on the following factors:
⋅ Where to meet: Ideally, you should meet at a location
that is conducive to reflection and where there will be no
interruptions.
⋅ How often to meet: Once every four to six weeks is a good
rule of thumb.
⋅ How long the sessions will be: Between 60 and 90 minutes
should be enough.
⋅ When to review: Initially, after two or three meetings and
then at agreed intervals.As a mentee, you need to be ready to be challenged and to en-
sure that the relationship is two-way. “Don’t fall into the trap of
letting your mentor always take the lead in conversations,” say
Blanchard and Diaz- Ortiz.
At your first review, you should discuss openly whether the
relationship is working and whether you are both benefiting
from the arrangement. If everything is going well, decide on
when you will review again. A mentoring relationship should
continue only for as long as it is useful. Some last for a few
months, some go on for years.The widening scope of mentoring
As mentoring has developed in sophistication and complexity
through the influences of coaching, counselling and other disci-
plines, its scope and range of applications has extended into new
areas. Corporate mentoring programme objectives can be gener-
al or very specific, focusing on many areas, including induction,
diversity, succession, talent management and change manage-
ment. Here, we look briefly at three specific developments in
the area of mentoring.➻^ Peer^ mentoring. The effectiveness of peer mentoring should
not be underestimated. Although some organizations, such as
the UK’s National Health Service, run formal peer mentoring
programmes for experienced people who are moving into new
roles, peer mentoring can also be adopted in the absence of a
formal programme. It may be easier and less intimidating for
someone to enter into a mutual mentoring relationship with a
colleague than with someone more senior. The level of construc-
tive criticism and challenge may also be higher. This is potential-
ly a good way for someone unfamiliar with mentoring to try it
out, with a trusted colleague.➻^ Community mentoring. Mentoring has now spread far be-
yond the business world. In the UK, mentoring is widespread
in the health and education sectors. Men-
toring used to support different groups
of people across the community is also
now a large part of the mentoring scene
in the UK. Mentoring organizations —
often supported by a mix of public and
charitable funding and volunteer help
— offer help to school pupils, vulnerable
young people, including those at risk of
offending, recovering drug addicts, people coming out of pris-
on and female members of ethnic minorities. For one example
of community mentoring, see the interview with Jane Walton,
of Yorkshire Mentoring, on page 68.➻ Reverse and two -way mentoring. There is a growing^
realization in the business world that experienced and senior
managers are often quite out of touch with the new realities of
a fast-changing environment and need to learn from younger
people in order to understand what is really going on. This is one
of the drivers for the introduction of “reverse” or “upward” men-
toring and two-way mentoring programmes.
Reverse mentoring began with tech-savvy juniors teaching
seniors essential IT skills. Two-way programmes encouraged
an exchange of IT knowledge and insights into management.
Reverse and two-way mentoring programmes are also run to
help older managers understand how to use social media and
manage diversity.
The most agile companies are now using the same approach
in relation to managing disruption, as they attempt to anticipate
and prepare for sudden and unpredictable changes in their busi-
ness environment.adopt sth. [E(dQpt]
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agile [(ÄdZaI&l]
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anticipate sth.
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charitable funding
[(tSÄrItEb&l )fVndIN]
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(charitable , karitativ)
conducive: be ~ to sth.
[kEn(dju:sIv]
, für etw. förderlich seinconfidentiality
[)kQnfI)denSi(ÄlEti]
, Vertraulichkeit
counselling [(kaUns&lIN]
, Beratung
diary [(daIEri]
, Tagebuch; hier:
Notizbuch
disruption [dIs(rVpS&n]
, Störung; tiefgreifender
Wandel
driver [(draIvE]
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auch: Beweggrunddrug addict
[(drVg )ÄdIkt]
, Drogenabhängige(r)
induction [In(dVkS&n]
, Einweisung,
Einarbeitung
insight [(InsaIt]
, Einblick
intimidating
[In(tImIdeItIN]
, einschüchternd
mission statement
[(mIS&n )steItmEnt]
, Leitlinie(n)National Health Service
[)nÄS&nEl (helT )s§:vIs]
, staatlicher britischer
Gesundheitsdienst
offend [E(fend]
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out of touch: be ~ with sth.
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verloren haben
peer [pIE]
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Kollege/Kolleginreverse [ri(v§:s]
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vertauschten Rollen
review (sth.) [ri(vju:]
, etw. überprüfen;
hier: das Ergebnis (von
etw.) besprechen
rule of thumb [)ru:l Ev
(TVm] , Faustregel
scope [skEUp]
, Anwendungsbereich
sophistication
[sE)fIstI(keIS&n]
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, Nachfolge
tech-savvy
[(tek )sÄvi] ifml.
, technologisch versiert
trap [trÄp]
, Falle
unpredictable
[)Vnpri(dIktEb&l]
, unvorhersehbar,
unkalkulierbar
vulnerable
[(vVlnErEb&l]
, gefährdetMentoring
has now
spread far
beyond the
business
world