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THE PURPOSE OF MENTORING
The mentoring system is an innovative approach which has its roots in the Humanist School of HR development and has become popular in recent years. The aim is to provide company employees with free access to a senior, experienced manager or consultant. They will dispense guidance and sometimes criticism to encourage the individual to grow and improve in their career.
THE FOCUS
Mentoring is not the same as Appraising.
The individual should select their own Mentor to be most effective; a Mentor should not be imposed. This will sometimes be the individual’s own boss or in other cases it will be the Personnel Manager. An outside experienced management consultant may be more appropriate at director level management.
The culture of the organisation will dictate which Mentor is chosen. A free-running open door policy is the rule in some companies; the individual in such an instance is able to see their mentor at any time, assuming appropriate notice. Other organisations chose to have a systematic, time-regulated approach. The individual will only have access to their mentor at certain pre-determined times. The company decides on the method, although there is value in having an open policy which can be problematic in practice.
THE ROLE OF THE MENTOR
In order to be effective, a Mentor will need to have developed the recognised skills; most important being listening, questioning, probing and coaching. Career Dynamics act as a decent starting point for would-be mentors. These four aspects are individual development, the Psychological Contract, the stages and tasks of the career cycle, and job role planning. Another useful requirement is the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of Appraisal Systems as well as Appraising in itself. Another effective recommendation is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. By taking this Mentors are able to understand varying personality types and the impact of values on different people.
Coaching is central in Mentoring; training and understanding in the following processes is recommended:
- Asking versus telling
- Listening skills
- Eliciting and giving feedback
- Truth, Choice and Self-regard
- Motivating
- Diagnosing an individual’s needs
- Recognising cultural differences
LEADERSHIP DIMENSIONS
We would recommend a method that relies upon the Mentor and individual meeting for Mentoring at senior or managerial levels. They would discuss certain key ability areas vital to leadership success. This creates a two-way process in which both individual and Mentor score the individual’s perceived abilities across a range of topics in advance. These may include:
- Command Skills
- Business Acumen
- Problem Solving
- Managerial Courage
- Timely Decision Making
- Customer Focus
- Innovative Management
- Informing
- Personal Learning
- Interpersonal Learning
- Building team Spirit
- Managing Diversity
- Results
- Strategic Agility
- Developing Subordinates
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