II module. What is mentoring?

Mentoring – from educational point of view it is a developmental partnership through which one person shares knowledge, skills, information and perspective to foster the personal and professional growth of someone else. There are two types of mentoring – pair and group. Also the mentoring could have many forms: face-to-face, e-mentoring, blended mentoring etc.

Pair mentoring – it is the mentoring where a mentor communicates with one mentee; they become acquainted and begin to build a relationship.  Pair mentoring is suitable for people who feel more comfortable developing his/her abilities by directly interacting with his/her own mentor.

Group mentoring – it is the mentoring where a mentor works with the group of 4-5 mentee. It takes more time for the mentees and the mentor to get acquainted with each other and begin to build strong working relationships. In addition, mentees in group mentoring often become peer mentors to each other.

Face-to-face mentoring – it is the mentoring form when the mentor regularly meets the mentees and communicates with them during the face-to-face individual or group meetings.

E-Mentoring – it is a form of technology-based learning. The Internet is the main factor on which E-mentoring depends. E-mentoring requires the mentors and the mentees to logon to a secure web environment where they can communicate with each other on a variety of work-related or personal issues.

Blended mentoring – it is the form of mentoring which unites face-to-face mentoring and e-mentoring. Mentor communicates with mentees using the e-mentoring web environment and he/she meets the mentees face-to-face few times during the mentoring process.

The basic aim of Mentoring

The basic aim of mentoring is to promote and support the mentee`s professional and personal life by raising trust in his/her knowledge and capability and by raising self esteem, also by conveying the mentor`s tacit knowledge, experience and contacts to the mentee as well as by discovering new ways of promoting career.

Importance of Mentoring

Mentoring is important, because it guarantees the development of the mentee and the mentor, raises self-esteem and belief in oneself, creates new networks, raises motivation, teaches to set goals, gives support and help, raises understanding between generations, cultures and different kinds of people, gives information, it is a good method of learning and developing, gives satisfaction, gives courage to meet conflicts and courage to take risks, teaches a ”helicopter perspective” to life.

Main actors of the Mentoring process

The main actors participating in the mentoring process are 3M actors – Manager, Mentor and Mentee. Every actor has the different roles and responsibilities in the mentoring process.

Manager is an experienced person who organises the whole mentoring process from the selection of the mentees and mentors to the collecting the feedback after the process ends and who supports the mentors and mentees through the mentoring process.

Mentor is a skilled, experienced and esteemed person who is willing to support and advise a less experienced person without financial compensation.

Mentee in general is less skilled person who wants to develop his/her own potential with an effort to face troubles and difficulties. Mentee can be also a person who is not sure about himself/herself and his/her acting in particular situations and welcome the guiding and support.

This course is dedicated for the Mentor but if you would like to learn more about the role of the Mentee, you should go here  or if you would like to learn more about the role of the Manager, you should go here.