Chapter 2: So That's What a Mentor Does!

As a mentor, your role is to:

1. Encourage your mentee’s strengths and potential
2. Share your practical knowledge of the job, the workplace and the profession
3. Assess your mentee’s needs to determine how best to help
4. Clarify expectations of your role and limits as mentor
5. Provide non-judgmental feedback

We are going to take a look at a number of mentoring techniques and learn how to apply them in a mentoring relationship.

Most people of a certain age are familiar with the George Lucas film "Star Wars," in which the main character, Luke, is studying to become a Jedi Knight by learning to use "the force." He is mentored in this learning by Yoda, a strange but wise character who has expertise in the knowledge that Luke seeks to learn.

Prospective mentors can learn a lot by studying Yoda's mentoring techniques. You will notice that Yoda uses four approaches needed by every mentor.

 

He supports and guides Luke

He provides a map or vision to help Luke get to where he wants to go in his learning

He challenges Luke in order to help him to learn and improve upon his skill

He lets Luke learn by doing

 When you click on the snippet from You Tube below, you will see a short clip from the movie "Star Wars"  in which Yoda mentors Luke. Observe Yoda's mentoring approach.

Your role as a mentor is to provide training, support, advice, and collaboration to individuals to help them gain confidence and improve their work skills.

As a mentor, your job is to create a climate that is relaxed, trusting, mutually respectful, informal and supportive.

The key to providing success support and guidance is to be a "guide on the side." When you see your mentee struggling to perform a task, it might be difficult not to step in and complete the task yourself. But, many people learn best from trial and error, hands-on experiences and even failure. Your goal is to create an effective learning environment for the mentee by ensuring the mentee learns the skill well enough to perform it independently over time.  This may take time and repeated practice, so be patient. Your mentee is still learning.

One distinction that can be made between mentors and formal teachers is that mentors "facilitate" learning rather than "teach." Facilitation is a more appropriate strategy to help adults learn.  Facilitation means "I will help you learn this skill," rather than simply "I will show you how to perform this skill." 

Keep the learning in the hands of the mentee. People tend to learn from both their successes as well as their mistakes. A good mentor will make sure that the mentee has the opportunity to gain learning from a wide range of experiences.

One of the mentor's roles is to help the novice grow into the job and into the profession. Determine what the mentee's short, medium and long-term goals are, so that you can plan your mentoring accordingly. Some of this information will emerge over time, as your relationship with the mentee grows. It is likely that the mentee will share this information with you in very informal ways - a comment made during a coffee break, a question asked casually. You wil learn a lot about your mentee's interests and plans simply by listening carefully and being available to talk.

Problem solving is a very important part of learning. When a person is able to solve a problem on their own they are more likely to have a more complex understanding of the issues than if they are just told the solution.  Encourage the mentee to ask questions as part of the problem solving process. Mentees will develop a better set of skills from this process than if you just tell them everything they need to know.

Mentees should be active in setting the course for their own learning. This applies to what they are learning, the speed at which they can learn new things, and the manner in which the learning takes place.

Encourage the mentee to ask questions so that you know whether they are understanding and if there is anything you need to reinforce or show them in a different way. The mentee will probably ask questions about the job or the workplace on a need to know basis. The type of question that you are asked is a very good indicator of where the mentee is at in the learning process.

Let the mentee help determine what they need to learn. Sharing too much information too quickly might result in the mentee not being able to absorb all the information because they are not ready to apply it.

Maintaining a good relationship will let the mentee come to you when they are ready to hear and able to use what you have to tell them.

 

Follow these links for information on how to deliver constructive feedback and constructive criticism.

  

As a mentor, you help a new employee to learn a specific job. You are also helping the employee to be part of a company.  All organizations have what is called a "workplace culture."  Workplace culture includes whether the attitudes, interactions, dress, and ways of addressing each other are formal or casual. Cultures are different within workplaces.

You can help your mentee understand, for example, whether the organization is hierarchical and all employees interact through their immediate supervisor, or whether the organization is flat and employees and supervisors interact with each other at all levels. You can help your mentee know the rules and expectations around unwritten things like where to take breaks, whether employees like to socialize with each other at work, and communication styles among employees. Fitting into the workplace culture is an important element that contributes to employee success.