What is it and why do we need it?
In this article, I will share my experience and knowledge about mentoring: I will talk about its benefits, the principles of conducting mentor sessions and the basic rules for future mentors.
First, let's figure out what mentoring is:
Mentoring — is an effective way of transferring knowledge from a more experienced person (mentor) to a less experienced one (mentee). The mentor shares his/her experience, helps find solutions to problems, encourages achieving career goals or developing self-confidence, and guides the mentee to gaining his/her own wisdom.
What are the benefits of mentoring for the mentee and the mentor?
The benefits for the mentee are obvious: he gets answers to his questions, learns about options for solving the problem, or, together with the mentor, finds a path for further development.
A mentor helps mentees look at the problem from above, offers solutions based on their own experience, and inspires them to develop and improve their skills and knowledge.
The mentor benefits from the fact that:
expands his knowledge with the help of various cases from mentees;
tests his/her competencies and knowledge;
becomes more experienced in teaching, coaching, listening, giving and receiving feedback;
demonstrates leadership qualities, trains communication skills;
trains the ability to think more broadly to find non-standard solutions;
becomes more visible and significant in his company and in professional circles;
acquires an additional profession as a mentor;
promotes the development of new professionals and helps them on their path to development.
Mentoring in a team: building trust and developing competencies
Mentoring colleagues in a team is very valuable because it allows you to:
build trust in the team: the mentor listens to his colleagues, learns their weaknesses and helps without judgment, demonstrates a willingness to support;
meet colleagues whose knowledge and skills will help you in solving new problems in the future.
develop your competencies by solving your colleagues’ issues;
increase the level of competence within the team, eliminate weak points and be fully prepared when problems arise.
Remember: Mentoring within a team is a great tool for sharing experiences and expanding knowledge.
Basic rules for a good mentoring session:
A mentor should be half a step ahead of a mentee. It is important to find out what stage of development the mentee is at and give the information that he can absorb.
Don't overwhelm the mentee with advice. You need to listen to the person's request or help formulate a clearer request, and then share your experience and knowledge.
The mentor and mentee must agree on the form of interaction and the rules of the mentor session. Both the mentor and mentee must comply with the obligations.
A mentor must be attentive to the client’s request and show a sincere desire to help, support in choosing a development trajectory, inspire growth, development and the use of new tools.
A mentor must have active listening, coaching and teaching skills.
Menti is fully responsible for making decisions and implementing them.
Mentee must take responsibility for compliance with agreements with the mentor. Maximum interest in gaining knowledge is important.
The mentor must be active and proactive, as he is the one who is most interested in the outcome of the mentoring session.
Both mentor and mentee need to learn how to give and receive developmental feedback.
How to become a mentor?
Determine in which areas you are competent enough and are ready to share your experience.
Create a mentor profile. Briefly describe your professional experience, place of work, position/role, key skills and mentoring topics in which you can be useful.
Identify where you can find mentees. Find out about the mentoring program at your company, offer to help colleagues. Contact organizations and resources that bring together mentors and mentees (paid or free).
Practice mentoring, collect feedback and improve your skills.
My Journey in Mentoring
A resource manager approached me with a request: to help a colleague expand his knowledge of the Agile and Kanban methods in order to successfully pass an assessment for a management position.
I had doubts: am I competent enough to be a good mentor for a colleague? But the manager assured me that I had enough knowledge that I could share. There was no other way, I had to agree. I was interested in testing myself, and I also sincerely wanted to help my colleague pass the assessment. The company had a manager mentoring program that allowed you to register as a mentor and help colleagues for free.
So, I registered and posted my mentor profile in the database. We called a colleague and agreed on the time of the mentoring session, the platform for the video meeting (he was from another country), and a specific request for discussion.
I prepared for the first meeting, made a presentation. During the session, I shared all my knowledge on the topic, and also sent the presentation and the recording of the meeting so that the mentee could refer to these materials independently.
Menti wanted to continue the collaboration and prepare for the assessment with me. We made a training plan and started studying. Six months later, Menti successfully passed the assessment and received a promotion.
I continued to be a mentor, and colleagues began to contact me with various requests on the topics indicated in my profile. One day, a mentee noted that all the information provided was undoubtedly useful, but he only needed my experience and approach to solving such situations. This feedback helped me realize that you should not dump all your knowledge on a mentee, it is important to focus on solving the problem formulated in the request.
I also attended the ACC ICAgile training, where I learned more about the role of a mentor and how to conduct mentoring sessions. I learned that mentoring is inextricably linked with coaching.
The main task of a mentor — to help with a difficulty, but not to solve a problem.
Coaching can help to reveal the request and give the client the tools necessary to independently find a solution. The mentor can only suggest possible paths, and the mentee will understand whether this solution is suitable and how to apply it. In addition, it is very important to check with the client whether you are going in the right direction. Over time, I became a mentor outside the company and now practice paid mentor sessions.
Let's sum it up
Mentoring is closely related to coaching, but is more focused on the client's needs and assistance in overcoming difficulties.
Anyone who has experience and knowledge in a certain area and is willing to share it with others can become a mentor.
A good mentor is distinguished by the ability to listen and hear the mentee, help in formulating a request, and also achieve mentoring results.
A mentor should be just half a step ahead of the mentee and give information that the mentee can understand.
If you feel like your conversation is going in the wrong direction during a session, it's worth asking your mentee.
Menti must be proactive and active to get the maximum benefit.
Mentoring allows you to develop the mentor's competencies, find solutions to the mentee's problem, and strengthen teams by increasing the expertise of its members.
Mentoring is a fun and rewarding process where both parties benefit. Develop your skills, be open to new things, and don’t be afraid to share your experiences. You may be the mentor who helps someone else succeed.
