Mentoring Dr. Penny Werthner University of Ottawa

Mentoring Mentoring comes from Homer’s famous Greek tale of Odysseus – who left his young son to be raised by an old wise man named Mentor Mentoring – knowledge and wisdom are passed from a more experienced mentor to a lesser experienced protégé

Mentoring: Mentoring, in its simplest form, is about people helping people – it means helping, advising, teaching, counseling, sharing, guiding another person

Mentoring occurs when there exists a trusting, mutually respectful relationship between mentor and protégé Little (1990)

Keys to a successful mentoring relationship and/or program??:  Two key questions you need to ask:  What is aim of mentoring program? What are you trying to accomplish?  What are the requirements/qualities for mentors? For protégés?

Requirements/Qualities of an effective mentor?  Willingness to share expertise/experience  Ability to identify and ‘model’ professional behaviors  Ability to effectively communicate  Ability to develop connections/networks  Willingness to focus on protégé’s development  Knows how to encourage ‘deep’ reflective thinking

Requirements/Qualities of an effective protégé ?  Willingness to assume responsibility for learning  Ability to communicate, articulate needs, ask questions for clarification  Willingness to work on ‘deep’ thinking, becoming more reflective  Sees learning as life-long

Requirements/Qualities of an effective organization ?  Provides clear expectations and accountabilities  Provides appropriate training for mentors  Involves mentors (and perhaps potential protégés in the matching process)

Three other keys to a successful mentoring relationship and/or program??:  Accessibility  Approachability  Protégé initiative

Accessibility, approachability, initiative:  Accessibility - availability of the mentor – in order for relationship to form  Approachability - degree to which student/protégé is ‘comfortable’ with mentor (respected)  Initiative by protégé – mentoring is not a one way process (we need responsibility and accountability on both sides) and reflection!

 Formal and informal – differ primarily in process in which they were formed  Informal – often form spontaneously, based on common goals, values, interests; are unstructured or loosely structured  Formal – are managed by an organization – paired by a third party; some training involved Types of mentoring:

Often purpose and motivation are also different  Informal – form more from desire on part of mentor to help protégé, and protégé being open to advice, and wanting to learn  Formal – individuals may be more obligated to participate Formal and informal con’t:

 Important to see learning as a life-long adventure (Jarvis, 2006, 2009)  We learn from our formal education, but we also learn from our informal experiences (as athletes/players, officials, friends, colleagues), and we learn from others  All of this forms who we are (our ‘cognitive structure’ Moon, 2004 ), at any point in time, and it affects how we will choose to learn How we learn (most effectively)?

 For the protégé  career planning (long and short term goals)  emotional support  networking opportunities  work role clarification  better job performance  feelings of confidence….. The potential benefits of mentoring (from research) ??:

 For the mentor  developing effective relationships with the protégé  personal satisfaction, a ‘sense of renewal’, ‘giving back’, ‘staying sharp’  enhanced development of their own work skills  enhanced development of skill of personal reflection (one gets to consider own strengths and weaknesses, how you have been acting…) The potential benefits of mentoring??:

 For the organization  Should be integrated into/part of the organization’s philosophy  Can be seen as a way to prepare professionals for your organization – benefit from better trained officials!  Can be a way to build the ‘culture’ of your organization The potential benefits of mentoring??:

 What worked and did not work (two ‘pairs’ of coaches  1 st pair in alpine ski –both had experience, were on the hill regularly together, no teaching/more ‘conversation’, no evaluation  2 nd pair – one with experience, protégé no experience coaching, mentor travelled extensively, evaluation involved Some current research in mentoring and sport coaching??: