Human Resources

Organisational Development Training and Diversity

Mentoring
Guidelines

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Contents
What is Mentoring? 3
When to use Mentoring 3
What is a Mentor? 4
Why Mentoring? 4
Support for Mentors 5
The Benefits of Mentoring 5
Skills and experience required to be a mentor 6
The Mentoring Process 7
Different roles a Mentor may be required 8
to take
Mentoring using the GROW model 10
How individuals learn 12
Managing the Meetings 13
Making the Meetings Work 13
Ending the Mentoring Relationship 14

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What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is essentially about helping people to develop more effectively. It is a
relationship designed to build confidence and support the mentee so they are able
to take control of their own development and work.

Mentoring is not the same as training, teaching or coaching, and a mentor doesn’t
need to be a qualified trainer or an expert in the role the mentee carries out.
They need to be able to listen and ask questions that will challenge the mentee to
identify the course of action they need to take in regards to their own development.
The following definition provides a useful insight:

off-line help by one person to

another in making significant
transactions in knowledge,
working or thinking
(Clutterbuck & Megginson 1995)

Off-line means an individual who is not the mentee’s direct line manager. A mentor
is different from a line manager in that they will not have direct responsibility for
the mentee’s work performance but they will be responsible for encouraging the
mentee to work towards their own individual objectives and be a motivating guide
for the mentee on their journey.

When to use Mentoring

Mentoring can be used for a wide variety of situations and different points in
someone’s working life for example:

• Induction for a new starter*.

• Individuals working towards promotion.
• Staff who have changed roles in the department or across the organisation.
• Staff on structured learning programmes for example ILM programmes.
• Changes to job roles for example following a restructure.
• Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

*Guidance on the role of a buddy during induction is available at:

http://www.mmu.ac.uk/humanresources/pdf/general/guidelines-for-new-starter-
buddy-or-mentor.pdf

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What is a Mentor?
A mentor is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as an “experienced and trusted
adviser”. This description reflects how we would like to see mentors work with
their mentees. Your role as mentor will cover at least some of the following:

• Listen
• Ask questions to help develop your’s and the mentee’s understanding of a
situation or problem
• Provide information and knowledge and share informal networks
• Provide advice on career development
• Offer different perspectives
• Provide support and encouragement
• Provide an insight into your work and career
• Offer guidance and advice in regards to qualifications
• Be a sounding board
• Be a critical friend
• Encourage self reflection
• Help mentees identify areas for development

As a mentor you will have the opportunity to use your experience and knowledge
in a facilitative manner to support the development of the mentee. However, the
responsibility for making things happen and putting plans into action lies primarily
with the mentee - not with you.

Why Mentoring?
• It has flexibility – mentoring can happen in so many ways and under lots of
different circumstances
• Is an off line activity- it is not a role carried out by the mentee’s line
manager although mentoring conversations can become part of day to day
activity and don’t always need to be scheduled
• It relates to work and the job
• It is individual – each relationship will be unique to those two individuals
involved
• It is people centred
• It provides a feedback system- feedback is central to mentoring and is a
great tool to enhance and embed learning
• It is broad in focus – it should meet the needs of the mentee and mentor
• It is not exclusive – but actually complements other methods of learning

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Support for Mentors
At times you may feel that you need a little support yourself as a mentor; you may
have faced or be dealing with a situation with your mentee and be unsure how to
approach it. There are a range of support methods available to mentors.

• Your colleagues and peers

• Your own mentor if you have one (a good idea if you are going to mentor
others)
• Organisation Development & Training team
• Mentor development sessions/programmes – including ILM Level 5
Certificate in Coaching & Mentoring
• On-line resources and tools, including information provided for MMU’s
mentormatch scheme for students at:

www.mentormatch.mmu.ac.uk

The benefits of Mentoring

For the Department/
For the Mentor For the Mentee
Organisation
• Job satisfaction from • Increased self confidence and • Increased levels of
seeing others develop motivation motivation from those
• Increased recognition from • Support and challenge in involved
peers formulating a clear sense of • Employees who have a clear
• Challenge and stimulation personal direction direction and clear objectives
• Having identified future • Understanding of the formal • Improved communication at
potential of the person and informal culture and all levels and across levels
they are mentoring structures at MMU • Sharing of knowledge
• Learning and developing • An opportunity to develop and experiences and best
yourself from the process skills by observing others practice as standard working
• Satisfaction at the success • A source of knowledge and practice
of the mentee experience to tap into • Tangible and measurable
• Recognition of your • A sounding board to discuss gains if work tasks and
mentoring skills by the ideas and approaches before projects are used as a
Department and the action is taken development tool
University • An opportunity to think about • Innovation and continuous
• Motivation from self things in a different way improvement in the way that
development and employees approach their
responsibility work

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Skills and experience required to be
a Mentor
• Self Awareness – you should have a good understanding of your own
strengths and development needs.
• Organisational know-how – you should know how to get things
done at MMU and how things work.
• Credibility – you should have personal and professional credibility,
this may include being a member of relevant organisations.
• Accessibility – you should be willing and able to commit sufficient
time to your mentee to offer support and guidance.
• Communication – you need excellent communication skills and be
able to understanding the ideas and feelings of others. You also need to
be a great listener.
• Ability to empower – you should be able to create an working
environment where it is safe for individuals to try out different things,
allowing them to contribute in different ways.
• A desire to help others develop – you should understand how
individuals develop and have experience, either formally or informally,
of developing others.
• Inventiveness – be open to new ways of doing things and different
ways of working.
• Empathy – Ability to empathise with others.
• Understanding –You should be prepared to try to understand different
perspectives, approaches and possibly backgrounds of different
mentees.

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The Mentoring Process

Mentor Sessions Moving On

Initial Meeting
• review experience • identifying when the
• explain the purpose relationship reaches a
• identify objectives
of the mentoring natural end
relationship • provide feedback
• review and sign off
• the format of the • identify strengths and
objectives
meetings and how achievements
• helping the mentee to
these will work • identify areas of
identify the next steps
• what you will commit development
(possibly a different
to and your role • explore options mentor)
• what is expected from • coaching on specific • Self reflection
mentees and their role areas if required and review on the
• discuss professional effectiveness of the
issues relationship by both
• agree support needs parties
• set targets for future
actions
• create opportunities
for mentees to gain
experience

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Different roles a Mentor may be required
to take

Networking Councelling

Facilitating Coaching

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Coaching Core skills needed:
• Listening with an open mind and suspending
This is a very active role for the judgements
mentor where you will be working • Being able to see the issue from a different
with the mentee to encourage them perspective, that of the mentee
in the development of relevant skills • Identifying behaviour that needs to change
and attitudes for the future. The focus • Helping mentees to recognise their own individual
of the coaching role is on the ability strengths and areas of weakness
to help the mentee see beyond the • Providing constructive feedback
current situation and to identify what • Setting projects that will stretch the mentee
the future can look like and what • Ability to clarify so both parties have a shared
needs to happen to help achieve this. understanding
This is helpful in setting goals and • Being able to take a mentee back through and
identifying what actions an individual experience, to help them to evaluate it and to
needs to take next. recognise what could have been done differently.

Counselling Core skills needed:

In counselling mode the mentor acts • Listening – withholding comments unless it helps
as a sounding board what the mentee the mentee to clarify their thoughts
is solving a problem or making a • Focusing on observable behaviours rather than
difficult decision. As a confidant, the personality traits
mentor helps the mentee to clarify the • The ability to handle negative information without
real issues involved and to see the driving the mentee into an emotional corner
bigger picture. • Avoiding unconstructive arguments
• Being able to help move the mentee into
constructive problem solving mode
• Knowing when to call in specialist advice.

Networking Core skills needed:

In the role of networking the mentor • The ability to define and understand networks, what
alerts the mentee to the use of adds value and why
contacts both formal and informal • Undertstanding key areas you need to influence and
outside of the official structure of the who are the key individuals
department. They also explain how • PCreating opportunities for mentees to meet others
these individuals can add value to the who will help provide information or opportunities to
mentee in the achievement of their help develop gaps in the mentee’s knowledge
goals..

Facilitating Core skills needed:

The mentor as facilitator takes action • Being clear about what needs to happen and why
that will indirectly smooth the way for • Recognising potential barriers and what causes them
something else to happen. This could • Provides advice and guidance on ways to overcome
be as simple as passing on a phone barriers
number or making an introduction to • An understanding of the politics of management
someone who will be helpful for the • Smoothing the path for mentees for example by
mentee either now or in the future. By providing introductions, backing ideas and spreading
facilitating you are starting a process the word on projects the mentee is working on
that will help the mentee to pursue
their goals.

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Mentoring using the GROW model
The GROW model is a good way to structure a meeting with your mentee. You can
either start with the goal and work logically through the model or you can move
the model around, starting with the reality and then the goal, if this works best.
Remember to always finish with the way forward and ensure that this is set and
owned by the mentee. The model is outlined below.

What will you do? What do you want?

GOALS

What?
WILL When? REALITY
Where?
How Much?

OPTIONS

What is happening now? What could you do?

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Goal – Get the mentee to focus on the future and on what THEY want to achieve
as an individual. It is not where you think they should be aiming.

Reality – Ask questions to help the mentee establish where they are now. If
you work with the individual directly you may need to give feedback on actual
performance. Encourage the individual to get feedback on their performance from
their direct line manager if you do not work with them directly as this will help
them to identify their current reality.

Options – help the mentee to identify what different options are open to them
and ask questions to help them explore the reality of each of these options. Share
your own experiences if the mentee is struggling to identify sufficient options and
beware of being too directive.

Way Forward – Encourage the mentee to design an action plan which they have
set and encourage them to set SMART objectives, objectives that are specific,
measurable, achievable and realistic for the mentee in their current position and
that have clear timescales attached.

Remember to
• Focus on what the mentee needs
to achieve
• Listen more than you talk
• Support and encourage the mentee
• Encourage the mentee to adress
challenging issues
• Keep an open mind.

Don’t
• Take responsibility for the action
plan
• Assume that what worked for you
will work for your mentee
• Take action on behalf of the
mentee unless you jointly agree
that this is the best course of
action
• Assume you know what the
problem or the answer is.

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How individuals learn

UNDERTAKE
NEXT
ACTION

NEXT STEPS?
ACT

RECALL
AND
REFELECT

INSIGHTS

This diagram shows the process of learning. By following the diagram through we
are able as individuals to embed our learning and part of the role of a mentor is to
encourage mentees to work through the learning cycle. An individual’s learning
style will determine where they will naturally want to spend the most time. For
example, activists will want to spend time moving onto new experiences and will
have to be encouraged to recall and reflect on experiences they have just been
engaged in. Theorists will be reluctant to try out new things until they have all
the information they can possibly find. Pragmatists will want to think about and
have lots of time to plan how they will approach things. Reflectors will need to
be moved on from reviewing what has happened to trying out new experiences.
Understanding the learning style of your mentee is helpful in showing you the part
of the learning cycle they will lean towards naturally and where you may need
to give a little push. An easy way to find out an individual’s learning style is to
ask them to decribe something they learned how to do and how they did it. For
example, riding a bike, learning a musical instrument, learning a language or how
they approach building flat packed furniture. This give you a good indication know
about how your mentee likes to learn.

It is helpful to also recognise your own learning style so you are aware of the
areas you may gloss over as they don’t suit your own natural way of learning. For
example, an activist mentor may get frustrated with a mentee who is a reflector or
a theorist. Something to watch out for!

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Managing the Meetings
The mentor should take on the role of a facilitator during the meetings using
questions and a non directive, non judgemental approach. Following the GROW
model will be really helpful during the meetings. The purpose of the meetings
could be for some or all of the following reasons:

• Reviewing and identifying the mentee’s experience

• Helping the mentee to identify individual strengths and areas for
development
• Discussing professional and work issues
• Agreeing what support is required
• Exploring the options open to the mentee
• Coaching on specific skills
• Supporting the mentee to set achievable realistic and stretching
action plans

Remember meetings will not be the only form of contact with your mentee.
Telephone calls, emails and brief on the job discussions will also be a part of the
process but you should have an agreed number of scheduled meetings with your
mentee set to fit around the action plan of the mentee, and around specific points
in their development.

Making the Meetings Work

1. Have a clear structure and purpose. Before the meeting consider the structure
and the time parameters. These should be agreed during the initial meeting
when you are contracting with the mentee. Having a clear structure and
purpose in mind will be the best and most effective use of your time and their
time.
2. Think about the content of the meetings. There should be a balance of looking
back and reviewing the mentee experiences and reviewing if objectives
set have been met or, if not, why not? There should also be a balance of
discussing current issues and thinking about the future and ensuring the
mentee sets realistic objectives for their action plan.
3. Keep to dates and times set. It is easy to let the day job get in the way but try
to focus on the benefits to everyone (including the organisation) of engaging in
this process. Give it the priority it requires to be successful.
4. Enjoy the experience!

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Ending the Mentoring Relationship
It is important to consider how the mentoring relationship will end. Discuss the
reasons for the ending of the relationship with your mentee. In certain situations
the end date is agreed during the initial meeting but it is not always possible in all
situations to be able to identify a clear end date. Reasons for ending the mentoring
relationship can be varied:

• The relationship has achieved its objective

• You feel that your mentee is confident and ready to move on
• You have tried but the mentee is not responding
• The programme is coming to a close
• The relationship isn’t working successfully and both parties
wish to move on.

It is useful and good practice for the mentor and mentee to revisit the original
goals and objectives and compare them with actual outcomes. This allows both
parties to review what progress has been made and to acknowledge what has been
achieved. It is useful to encourage the mentee to find another mentor for the next
stage of their journey and you may even be able to suggest individuals the mentee
may like to approach. However you should take time to evaluate how you feel you
have developed during the relationship and what lessons you have learned.

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This publication is available in alternative formats.
Please telephone 0161 247 6430.

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