The
Concept
The
concept of mentoring has a long history, one that originates
in Greek mythology. In Homer's Odyssey, Mentor was the
teacher of Telemachus, the son of Odysseus.
Today,
some 3500 years later, mentoring relationships are still
valued. In many professions, mentors are believed to enhance,
if not ensure, the professional development and success
of talented newcomers.
If
mentoring were only a means for aspiring young professionals
to gain a career foothold or to be given a boost up
the career ladder, the relationship would be a one-way
street. Common experience tells us that one-sided relationships
do not work as well as reciprocal relationships where there
is an even exchange of some kind.
In fact, mentoring relationships reach their
fullest potential when they are reciprocal.
What
does the mentor derive from mentoring?
Erickson's
description of the Eight Stages of Man sheds some light on
the question:
"For
the mentor, Erickson's seventh stage of 'generativity'
adds further substance to the mentoring
relationship. The desire that one's work and influence
'live on' is an important
life goal. The nurturing and influencing of young adults
and the facilitation of
their efforts to form and live out their hopes and wishes
can fulfill the generative needs of
the mentor." (Rodriquez,
et.al., 1984)
Thus,
among the strongest and most compelling reasons for serving as
a mentor may be the desire to fulfill one's own need to contribute
to the growth, development and wish fulfillment of an aspiring professional.
The act of mentoring allows one to repay, in some measure,
the intrinsic benefits he or
she has derived from the profession.
Mentoring
Relationships
Mentoring
relationships differ in an important way from other personal
relationships because they are professional in nature.
Mentors are responsible for conveying and upholding the
standards, norms,
and values
of the profession. They are responsible for offering support
and challenge to the recipient of their mentoring while the recipient
strives to fulfill the profession's expectations.
Healthy
mentoring relationships are evolutionary rather than static
in nature. They change because the purpose of the relationship
is to enable the recipient to acquire new knowledge, skills, and standards
of professional competence. The perceptions of both members
of the relationship evolve as the mentee's performance
evolves to new levels of competence under the mentor's
guidance and support.
One
way to view the evolutionary nature of mentoring relationships
is to think in terms of stages of development.
Stage
1
The
mentor and mentee become acquainted and informally clarify
their common interests, shared values and professional goals.
Occasionally, matchmakers who assign mentors to mentees can foresee "mentor
marriages made in heaven." Taking time to become acquainted
with one another's interests, values and goals seems to help
mentoring relationships gain a better start than when such
activity is given low priority.
Stage
2
The mentor and mentee communicate initial expectations and
agree upon some common procedures as a starting point. In a very
few cases where a major disparity is found to exist,
the pair can part company on a friendly basis before the actual
mentoring and inevitable frustration begins.
Stage
3
Gradually, needs are fulfilled. Objectives are met. Professional
growth takes place. New challenges are
presented and achieved. This stage may last for months or
years.
Stage
4
The mentor and mentee redefine their relationship as colleagues,
peers or friends.
Importance of Matching
Historically,
individuals who have desired to become mentors have looked
over aspiring newcomers and have selected promising young
mentees to nurture. Most of the time, these mentoring relationships
work out very well. Occasionally, they do not, and the mentee
moves on in search of another mentor, or the mentor seeks
another mentee.
The
ability to predict the combination of personal and professional
qualities that attract individuals to one another in mentoring
relationships is enhanced by understanding observable language.
Dr. William Moulton Marston viewed people as behaving along
two axes their actions tending to be active or passive depending
on whether the individual viewed the environment as either
antagonistic or favorable. By placing these axes at right
angles, four quadrants were formed with each circumscribing
a behavioral pattern:
| Dominant
Directors |
(D) |
| Interacting
Socializers |
(I) |
| Steady
Relators |
(S) |
| Cautious
Thinkers |
(C) |
Mentors
can have a significant effect upon the professional development
of aspiring young or mid-career adults.
Whether a mentor's impact is positive or negative depends
in large part upon how well informed and skilled the mentor
is, and upon the mentor's commitment and availability. It
seems only natural to ask: Is training to be a mentor
really necessary? Research at the University of California,
Irvine suggests that training is important to the success
of mentoring relationships.
The
majority of mentors (80%) surveyed expressed the view that training
would be helpful. Comments included:
"Mentors
need training so that they can feel more confident about
helping others. They need to know
how to help agents who need help but will not actively
seek help."
A
better way to understand the need for mentor training is to examine
the difficulties that mentors encounter while fulfilling their roles.
When asked, "What are the most difficult aspects of mentoring for
you?" most mentors cited examples which illustrated the need
for basic information and training:
"Making
the initial contact and building trust. Sharing my ideas at
first.I don't want to sound like a know-it-all even when I
am asked for help."
"Overcoming
my hesitation to tell (the mentee) that he/she is wrong
and to suggest alternatives. I feel like I am offending
him/her."
"Trying
to explain (to the mentee) that his/her approach or
close was too weak. I helped them revise it, but certain
parts were still too awkward. When do you stop correcting
and revising? When does helping become hurting?"
"Rejection.
I offered help at his/her convenience but my help wasn't
wanted .It's hard to help people."
"Working
with someone for a whole year and then finding that he/she
can't make it."
All
of these responses suggest a need for basic information about
mentoring relationships or for mentor training. The candid
and sensitive responses of these mentors point to the value
of some preparation for the role of mentor and the value of specific
skills that allow mentors to feel confident and successful
as they fulfill their expectations and goals as mentors.
Every
mentor has a specific body of professional knowledge and skill to
share. When most people think of mentoring, they think
of experts sharing their knowledge with less experienced individuals in
a profession. Sharing one's expertise is a large part of mentoring,
but so is the communication of support, challenge, feelings
and many other kinds of information.
Suggestions for Sharing Expertise, Instruction,
Management
and Evaluation
 Find
out how you can be the most helpful in the area of planning.
Schedule
regular times to meet for discussion and planning sessions.
Discuss
goals and critical success factors.
Review
marketing strategies and discuss how they will be implemented within
the plan.
Share
your ideas about planning for contingencies.
Talk
about how and where to anticipate errors.
Plan
together to achieve professional credentials.
Plan
strategies to sustain and increase motivation.
Talk
about the importance of organizational routines.
Communicating
Support and Challenge
The
effectiveness of verbal and nonverbal communication is high
on the list of important factors contributing to
the success of mentoring relationships. Mentors have a special
responsibility for effective communication because
they are a primary source of information, support and challenge
to the recipients of their mentoring. The
essence is communication: of knowledge, of skills, of values,
of attitudes and of expectations. Therefore, the
quality of communication affects all that happens in the
achievement of goals and objectives.
Mentors
need to offer their mentees challenges that stimulate professional
growth and cause them to stretch themselves past their current "comfort
zone." Challenges lead to the development of new levels of
expertise. When the amount of challenge is well matched to
the mentee's readiness for growth, the tasks become motivating.
Challenges that are not matched well with the individual's level
of development can be overwhelming and create feelings of being unable
to cope. Then, rather than producing growth, the challenge may lead
to frustration, panic or feelings of failure.
It
is important then for mentors to become sensitive to the growth
needs of those to whom they mentor and attempt to offer optimal
challenges for their mentees' professional development. Some mentors
develop mentoring plans to help maintain optimal levels of
challenge for the mentee. The primary function of a mentoring plan is
to focus on the developmental nature of becoming a professional
and to establish mileposts or benchmarks. These markers will guide
and serve as reminders that the recipient is growing in knowledge
and skill. Since the perceptions of both mentors and recipients
alike change as mentoring evolves, mentoring plans help the observant
mentor to keep one eye on the recipient's development and the
other eye on his or her readiness for the next challenge.
Are
there risks associated with mentoring? The answer is, "Relatively
few." Fortunately, the major risks associated with mentoring can
be avoided or reduced through knowledge and planning.
What
are the risks and how can they be avoided or reduced? Four of the
most commonly mentioned risks -- or fears of risks -- are
identified below and illustrated by examples of comments often
made by mentors and would-be mentors. Brief descriptions are offered:
Mismatch
between mentor and mentee
Mentors
express this fear with statements such as: "Our personal
styles may clash. We may not be able to work together. I'm afraid
I will overpower or threaten him. He has become too demanding
and too dependent. Can she take honest, well-intentioned criticism?"
Threat
to one's professional image
This
concern is expressed by statements such as: "I may be misunderstood;
he, she, or my colleagues may think I'm a know-it-all.
If she fails to make the grade in spite of my mentoring,
people may begin to wonder about my own competence. I could
be responsible for his success or failure!"
Mentors
express this fear or concern with statements such as, "I
might get in over my head. I'm trying to help, but maybe
I'm hindering him. What works for me may not work
for anyone else. Should I let her make mistakes that
can be avoided so that she can profit from them?"
Fear
of competition or rivalry is evident in statements such
as:
"She
may be more talented than I am; can I handle professional
jealousy?"
"I
have shared my best secrets and strategies with him and
now he is surpassing me! How will his success affect my
status, privilege or income?"
The
development of a mentoring plan can increase the sense of
personal control that both members of the relationship have or
may need. Such plans can identify in a systematic way the expectations
(e.g., times for regular meetings) and the topics
or issues to be covered. A mentoring plan helps to remind everyone concerned
that becoming a professional is a developmental process.
And at the end of a year, both members can look back at
the plan and recognize the mentee's growth.
The
Celebration
Since
childhood many of us have been reminded that "It is better to
give than to receive." And, in many languages and cultures, the
idea has been expressed that: "It is not what we give but
what we share."
Both
ideas capture an important aspect of mentoring: that many joys and
benefits result from sharing one's expertise, one's time, and
one's self. The most obvious of these joys comes in the form of
appreciation that others express for mentoring assistance. A different
kind of joy results when others value our expertise so much that
they incorporate our ideas into their own thinking and behavior.
And then, quite unexpectedly, still a third kind of joy emerges
when, in the midst of sharing our expertise with others, we rediscover
long-buried feelings of pride and accomplishment that were forgotten --
feelings that occurred when we first mastered our craft for
ourselves. These are just a few of the joys of mentoring.
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