13. Making mentoring relationships work
Mentoring is a mutually beneficial relationship which involves a more experienced person helping a less experienced person to achieve their goals (National Mentoring Association of Australia Inc www.mentoring-australia.org/).
Developing a mentoring relationship
A mentoring relationship can add significant value to the organisation’s effort to further develop and refine service delivery.
Effective mentoring is defined on the Mentoring Australia website (www.mentoring-australia.org/) as:
- a relationship that focusses on the needs of the mentee
- fostering a caring and supportive relationship
- encouraging all mentees to develop to their full potential
- a strategy to develop active community partnerships.
Effective mentoring relationships need:
- the visible support and endorsement of senior management
- to be underpinned by the mentor’s skills, knowledge, wisdom and an evidence base
- clearly articulated expectations and goals (of both parties), and an agreement about which has priority in particular situations
- clearly articulated roles and tasks (of both parties) and timelines which are flexible enough to accommodate changing needs
- scope for creative discussion
- to be voluntar
- to be consistent
- to be supported by relevant trainin
- to maintain a clear distinction between supervision and mentoring (i.e. an immediate supervisor cannot operate effectively as a mentor)
- to acknowledge the impact of gender on the project.
When there is more than one mentor
Generally mentoring occurs on a one-to-one basis. In situations where more than one mentor is engaged, consider:
- identifying one mentor as the primary contact, and the second as a support to the primary mentor
- engaging the secondary mentor (e.g. to provide information) when the primary mentor is not available.
Supporting tools and resources
There are many tools available to help the organisation develop and manage an effective mentoring relationship. Some are listed below:
- Dusseldorp Skills Forum – www.dsf.org.au
- Mentoring Australia – Benchmarks for Effective and Responsible Mentoring Programmes – www.dsf.org.au/mentor/benchmark.htm
- National Training Information Service – PMCSUP382A–Provide Coaching/Mentoring in the Workplace – www.ntis.gov.au/default.aspx?/trainingpackage/
- NRGize Workshops – Module 4 Forming and Maintaining Partnerships – www.youthmentoring.org.au/nrgize.php
- UNSW Mentoring Toolkit – www.hr.unsw.edu.au/osds/leadership/mentoring.html