Mentoring is a personal development relationship with a more experienced or knowledgeable person. This more experienced person does not need to be within the same department. The aim of a mentoring relationship is one that focuses on the individual. It is a process that involves communication and is relationship based. The information transferred to the mentee is perceived as relevant to work, career or professional development.
There are 2 broad types of mentoring relationships. Formal and informal. Informal relationships develop on their own between parties. Formal mentoring is a structured process supported by the organisation and delivered to a targeted group. In well-designed formal mentoring programs, there are program goals, schedules, training and evaluation.
To start your mentoring project, we would recommend a learning session for both Mentors and Mentees. These two sessions would be run separately. Ideally mentors and mentees understand individual roles. Some organisations question the need to prep the mentees. But we would recommend that your initial project does include the mentee workshop too.
A 60 - 90-minute launch event creates enthusiasm for the project. This can be a lunch, afternoon tea, after work drinks or some such “gathering” event that you deem appropriate. During this launch event the whole group is introduced to each other. We would ask one of your Senior Leadership team to introduce the program. Our Mentoring Expert would then facilitate a mentoring discussion.
At the conclusion of the facilitated discussion, the mentors and mentees would be paired and spend 30 minutes looking at goals as well as mapping out their meetings moving forward. Our Mentoring Expert is close by to help structure each pairing mentorship plan. The Mentoring Expert also helps each pairing to set standards and expectations.
Individual meetings usually occur face-to-face. Building a regular mentoring schedule works best (e.g. fortnightly meetings). Speak to your consultant about what logistics work best for you. We can manage the entire project or you may prefer to run part of the project.
A conclusion is very important in a mentoring project. The conclusion includes a project completion date. Without a conclusion the project fizzes out and misses the opportunity of making an impact. We recommend that we design a conclusion that is appreciative of everybody's inputs. Our conclusion wraps up the key learnings from the mentoring project. Our conclusion also motivates the mentors to nominate as mentors again.
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