With the modern workplace becoming increasingly complex and time-poor, the importance of having skilled, experienced and industry-relevant mentors within the work environment has become not just desirable, but necessary. Whether it is for women in the workplace, career transition or SME business development, mentoring is certainly a ‘buzz word’ on everyone’s lips.
Yet whilst the need for mentors within the workspace is evident, what defines a mentor as being successful or worthwhile? What skills are required; what makes a good mentor? More importantly, when attempting to build a mentoring culture within your organisation, consider these questions:
Are you mentoring your mentors effectively?
Are your mentors getting as much as they give?
Are your mentors displaying their true mastery?
The case for mentoring
The forward thinking organisation relies heavily upon staff showing each other how to adapt, respond or emulate the processes needed for achieving best practice. Having said that, adult learning principles show us most learners prefer actual demonstrations, or ‘show’ learning rather than ‘tell’ learning.
With a never-ending array of technological advancements entering our workspace, from new computer hardware, to sophisticated software programs, the learning methodology of ‘reading the manual’ is not only poor practice, but hardly achieves the level of quality assurance we seek to meet.
Whilst mentoring is a powerful tool in the learning process, it is also arguably the most effective personal development activity available in workplaces. Debriefing, sharing examples, brainstorming, problem solving are all activities that reap great benefit within the mentoring relationship, for the mentor, the mentee and the organisation as a whole.
The process of mentoring
Contrary to popular disbelief, mentoring skills aren’t simply acquired through time on the job or unique experiences. In fact, some people can have a wealth of experience and be terrible mentors!
Mentoring, like any other skill, has key components that have to be learned and put into practice to ensure it works. One of the effective ways of mastering the skill of mentoring is to have a system that encapsulates the process. The below Mentoring Matrix is drawn from synergizing the common skills of gifted mentors, and conceptualised into a model that can be used as a cornerstone of developing mentoring capability within your practice. It showcases 9 areas of focus for exceptional mentoring.
If you have been asked to mentor someone in your workplace, or you are looking at introducing a mentoring process within your work team, consider the following, and move past mentoring as an intuitive process, but rather, a planned one.
Mentoring is more than experience
So hopefully this brief look at the Mentoring Matrix is some food for thought in taking your mentoring to a level of mastery within your practice. Great mentoring is not simply a sharing of experience of knowledge, it is a process that can see lifelong bonds formed, careers kick-started and in some cases, careers revived.
If you would like further information on unpacking of our Mentoring Matrix, please send us an email at info@pragmaticthinking.com and we would be delighted to send you our new e-book “Achieving Mastery in Mentoring”.
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Darren & AlisonYet whilst the need for mentors within the workspace is evident, what defines a mentor as being successful or worthwhile? What skills are required; what makes a good mentor? More importantly, when attempting to build a mentoring culture within your organisation, consider these questions:
Are you mentoring your mentors effectively?
Are your mentors getting as much as they give?
Are your mentors displaying their true mastery?
The case for mentoring
The forward thinking organisation relies heavily upon staff showing each other how to adapt, respond or emulate the processes needed for achieving best practice. Having said that, adult learning principles show us most learners prefer actual demonstrations, or ‘show’ learning rather than ‘tell’ learning.
With a never-ending array of technological advancements entering our workspace, from new computer hardware, to sophisticated software programs, the learning methodology of ‘reading the manual’ is not only poor practice, but hardly achieves the level of quality assurance we seek to meet.
Whilst mentoring is a powerful tool in the learning process, it is also arguably the most effective personal development activity available in workplaces. Debriefing, sharing examples, brainstorming, problem solving are all activities that reap great benefit within the mentoring relationship, for the mentor, the mentee and the organisation as a whole.
The process of mentoring
Contrary to popular disbelief, mentoring skills aren’t simply acquired through time on the job or unique experiences. In fact, some people can have a wealth of experience and be terrible mentors!
Mentoring, like any other skill, has key components that have to be learned and put into practice to ensure it works. One of the effective ways of mastering the skill of mentoring is to have a system that encapsulates the process. The below Mentoring Matrix is drawn from synergizing the common skills of gifted mentors, and conceptualised into a model that can be used as a cornerstone of developing mentoring capability within your practice. It showcases 9 areas of focus for exceptional mentoring.
If you have been asked to mentor someone in your workplace, or you are looking at introducing a mentoring process within your work team, consider the following, and move past mentoring as an intuitive process, but rather, a planned one.
Mentoring is more than experience
So hopefully this brief look at the Mentoring Matrix is some food for thought in taking your mentoring to a level of mastery within your practice. Great mentoring is not simply a sharing of experience of knowledge, it is a process that can see lifelong bonds formed, careers kick-started and in some cases, careers revived.
If you would like further information on unpacking of our Mentoring Matrix, please send us an email at info@pragmaticthinking.com and we would be delighted to send you our new e-book “Achieving Mastery in Mentoring”.
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THE GIFT: Darren Hill's latest publication Fingerprint Forcast
This weeks gift is a very special one indeed! The first five people to email us oninfo@pragmaticthinking.com with your top three dream mentors will receive a hard copy of Darren latest publication Fingerprint Forecast hot off the press.
Fingerprint Forecast is a pocket book on how behavioural trends will leave a lasting impression on your business towards 2020. It defines behavioural trends and explores how they have impact on our lives, our workplaces and our relationships.
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