What is mentoring ?

• Helping and supporting mentees to develop their career, skills, knowledge and abilities

• Improving the mentee’s self awareness of their own strengths to build on

• But also development needs and suggesting methods of addressing them

• Support and encouragement with constructive challenge where necessary

• Setting and reviewing goals for development

Mentoring is:

– Off line: Someone from outside your reporting hierarchy at work.

– Confidential: Issues between mentor and mentee are confidential.

– Mentee driven: The mentee must take the initiative. The final responsibility for actions taken, as a result of mentoring, lies with the mentee.

– Person focused

Role of the mentor

• Using mentor’s own knowledge and experience to offer guidance and give practical support

• Fast tracking mentee’s professional development through suggesting opportunities for learning and experience including networks

• Helping the mentee overcome obstacles

• Offering constructive feedback and challenge

• Improving the confidence and self esteem of mentee

Mentoring styles• No prescription: core aspects are

trust, empathy, confidentiality and good knowledge of the sector

• Using a coaching style would suggest:– Encouraging mentee to take

responsibility for their own learning and development

– Balancing practical advice/suggestions with encouraging mentee to think through options and possibilities for themselves

– The importance of setting clear goals at outset, following up each session and reviewing periodically

– Active listening and reflecting back/summarising

– Constructive challenge e.g. of self-limiting thinking

The practicalities to agree at the outset

• Establishing rapport: getting to know each other; trust; confidentiality issues

• Agree on meetings: frequency; face to face or telephone;

• Establish boundaries: personal development issues as well as purely professional development?

• Define what will success look like for both of you at the end of the programme- and keep under review

• Share data: skills audit, ongoing feedback etc

Mentoring during the recession

• Succession planning - Need to accelerate the knowledge/skills and development of retained staff

• Organisational capacity - Less public money for regeneration means being able to use new models for investment and development and working differently across professional boundaries

• Sharing resources across boroughs

• Creating a strong professional regeneration sector

How to get the most from mentoring

• Part of the jigsaw, not the entire jigsaw

• Not for everyone• Promotes independent

thinking and personal initiative

• Dump the baggage• Create the space• Learning things you

can’t write down

Any questions ?