Developing Individuals through Mentoring
Mentoring has been around since the Odyssey. Most people are familiar with the tale of Odysseus returning from the Trojan Wars to find that his old friend Mentor had supported his son Telemachus, during his long absence. However, are you also aware than Mentor was actually the Goddess Aphrodite in the guise of Mentor? So the first mentor was actually female!
Early Mentoring
Formal mentoring became most visible with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters programme in New York in the 1920s and mentoring soon became an important part of the US corporate development scene. In the 1980s and 1990s it became more popular in the UK with the Labour Government using it extensively post 1997 as a tool to deal with “remedial” school children, unfortunately not a move which endeared it to all the parents at the time. Up to three or four years ago, mentoring programmes were flourishing in many private and public sector organisations as well as being used extensively in educational institutions and associations. With the rise in popularity of coaching, mentoring took more of a back seat with energy being put into coaching in the line, internal coach and executive coaching initiatives, mentoring becoming more of the poor relation and coaching gaining more interest, particularly in the corporate arena.
Modern Day Mentoring
Mentoring is now more popular in this new era of constant turmoil in a recession sensitive economy. With some people it never went out of flavour, but there is an enormous surge of interest in using mentoring in organisations, particularly around talent development and supporting women. The cost effectiveness of setting up a programme versus bringing in external coaching support is a no brainer and learning and development professionals realise this.
These groups of employees might benefit from being part of a “formal” mentoring programme:
- New recruits
- Graduate entrants
- All levels of leadership and management
- Individuals with high potential and for talent management
- Disadvantaged groups
- People facing change and undergoing transitions
- Women breaking through career barriers, going on maternity leave or returning to work
- To support specific organizational learning needs e.g. supporting sustainability
- To foster knowledge management and communities of interest and practice
But basically everyone can benefit from a mentor!
Is Mentoring the same as Coaching?
Coaching is concerned primarily with performance and the development of more tangible skills. It usually starts with the learning goal already identified, if not by the individual, then by their line manager. Mentoring tends to be more holistic and about supporting the individual in opening up their potential and capability.
Research by Willis (2005) into mentoring and coaching standards undertaken by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) suggests that in practice there is much common ground between mentoring and coaching. Garvey, Stokes and Megginson (2009) when comparing mentoring with coaching found that mentoring activity is found in all sectors of society and includes both paid and voluntary activities. It is also associated with ‘off line’ partnerships. Coach Mentoring Ltd defines mentoring as an off line developmental dialogue with mutual benefits, but acknowledges many of the similarities with coaching.
However, there is an enormous overlap and at Coach Mentoring Ltd, we like to work with the client to encourage and educate them in how they define coaching and mentoring in their unique organizational context and culture. Please contact us to see how we can help you with your mentoring.