Everyone Needs a Mentor

Overview

The relationship should develop swiftly and smoothly if both mentor and mentee have been well matched and well prepared. The phases the relationship typically goes through are examined in the next chapter. In this short section we lookat how to make sure that the mentoring pair make the most of the opportunity given them.

By the time the mentor and mentee hold their first formal meeting under the mentoring programme, both should have a clear idea of the objectives of the relationship. These may be relatively vague at this stage, not least because the programme is intended to help the mentee refine and develop his or her career objectives. However, it should at least start with some form of assessment of the mentee's strengths and weaknesses, the nature of the transition he or she would like to make, and what the longer-term ambitions are. It will also, of course, take into account the general programme objectives, which both parties should understand clearly.

Typical starting objectives might include:

• Introduce the mentee to other, parallel functions or departments whose workhe or she will need to understand to progress or that may open his or her eyes to potential sideways moves.

• Help the mentee breakdown a seemingly impossible or far-fetched goal into a series of more tangible tasks that he or she can begin to address. Having a more or less detailed route-map of the experience, skills and competencies he or she needs to gather, the mentee can enter on to a self-development or career management path with greater confidence and commitment.

• Help the mentee thinkthrough how to raise his or her visibility where it matters.

• Help the mentee establish the informal networks he or she needs to be effective in the organisation.

• Act as a sounding-board in helping the mentee workout how to manage difficult relationships with working colleagues.

• Help the mentee thinkthrough how to apply in practice what he or she is learning through theoretical study.

• Gain a real understanding of the career choices that face the mentee, and the implications of each choice.

Some organisations prefer to set out objectives in terms of process rather than outcomes. For example, a large UK chemical company sets out the following responsibilities at the beginning of a mentoring relationship:

• Meet the mentee once a month for at least an hour by timetabling formally in advance.

• Ensure that the mentee maintains a brief diary of daily events to form the basis for the monthly discussion.

• Develop a personal relationship with the mentee.

• Maintain the relationship for two years.

The objectives will be defined and adopted as the relationship develops and as the mentee's needs change. It is also expected that the two people start off with the same understanding of the ground rules of the relationship. In particular, there have to be clear rules of behaviour.

Another common guideline is: ‘The mentor will only communicate his or her knowledge of the mentee to other parties with the mentee's consent. '

A more detailed and generic code of practice for the mentoring relationship is that designed for the National Standards, and is reproduced in the box below. Some organisations provide a general set of core rules for all mentoring relationships; others leave it to the individuals to decide. Whichever route they choose, the aim is to help the mentee stand on his or her own feet, not to make him or her dependent.

• The mentor's role is to respond to the mentee's developmental needs and agenda; it is not to impose his or her own agenda.

• Mentors must workwithin the current agreement with the mentee about confidentiality that is appropriate within the context.

• The mentor will not intrude into areas the mentee wishes to keep private until invited to do so. However, he or she should help the mentee recognise how other issues may relate to those areas.

• Mentor and mentee should aim to be open and truthful with each other and themselves about the relationship itself.

• The mentoring relationship must not be exploitative in any way, nor can it be open to misinterpretation.

• Mentors need to be aware of the limits of their own competence and operate within these limits.

• Mentors have a responsibility to develop their own competence in the practice of mentoring.

• The mentee must accept increasing responsibility for managing the relationship; the mentor should empower them to do so and must generally promote the mentee's autonomy.

• Mentor and mentee should respect each other's time and other responsibilities, ensuring that they do not impose beyond what is reasonable.

• Mentor and mentee share responsibility for the smooth winding down of the relationship when it has achieved its purpose - they must both avoid creating dependency.

• Either party may dissolve the relationship. However, both mentor and mentee have a responsibility for discussing the matter together as part of mutual learning.

• The mentee should be aware of his or her rights and any complaints procedures.

• Mentors must be aware of any current law and workwithin the law.

• Mentor and mentee must be aware that all records are subject to statutory regulations under the Data Protection Act 1998.