Mentoring

Mentoring is designed to enable one of the participants develop their capability to manage selected aspects of their work. It is generally based on principles of non-directive, facilitative interaction - this means that the role of the mentor is primarily to allow the individual to work through their own perception of certain issues, identify options to resolve issues, and evaluate them in his or her own terms. It has some similarities with counselling, but is applied to professional practice and development.

The main stages of a mentoring relationship are as follows:

• identification of a suitable mentor
• agreement on objectives of relationship
• agreement on format of meetings, frequency, duration
• regular meetings reviewed at agreed intervals.

In theory a mentoring relationship could go on indefinitely, but it is more appropriate to define time dependent, specific objectives, which therefore imply a limited duration. Six to twelve months are common periods for this process. Mentoring is suitable for issues of general professional development, and less so for technical matters, for which on the job coaching, or a course is usually more appropriate.

Mentors should be effective listeners, able to take a non-directive approach, which means that they do not put forward concrete suggestions but help the individual to formulate their own. Internal mentors should not be direct line managers of the individual, but should be able to create learning opportunities within the organization. External mentors have the benefit of being entirely independent of the internal politics of the organization. When external mentors are used they should have some prior liaison both with the individual's line manager and other senior staff to ascertain the appropriate organisational limits. However, the mentoring role itself is defined between the individuals concerned, and should not carry any other agenda except the development of the individual mentee. Needless to say, the material of the mentoring relationship is entirely confidential.