We are now into the fourth week of Covid-19 lockdown in the UK, but already it is obvious our old ‘normal’ has gone and will not return. I have previously explored how mentoring interventions can support the transitions that individuals’ experience as they engage with this new world. However, in this article I will consider how internal coaching and mentoring can actually improve individual’s ability to reinvent and adapt both themselves and their organisations to thrive in the future. Continue reading
Internal coaching and mentoring to support through Covid-19
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A quarter of the world’s population is now in lockdown. Lis Merrick explores the situation and offers a perspective on what employers can do in this extraordinary chaos. Exploring mentoring through the lens of William Bridges’ Model of Managing Transitions1, she proposes the greatest gift an employer can give at this time is a mentor to support through these incredulous changes in our lives caused by the Covid-19 virus.
In the first of our series of blogs for 
There are a number of factors to consider when matching mentors and mentees in a programme. Matching can get complicated at times when stakeholders in the scheme have very clear views of who the mentoring pairs should be. Matching criteria need to be in alignment with the purpose/business objective for the programme. If a senior leader wants to choose their own protégée to mentor, you may need to be tough and reinforce your matching criteria. So make sure you are clear what they are! 
The most comprehensive literature review of the benefits of mentoring that I have ever read was by 
In the last two decades, many employers have shown enthusiastic commitment to gender diversity. Women have made enormous strides in being able to compete on the same playing field as men at work. This is where initiatives such as mentoring and sponsor programmes have been really successful in helping erode this gender imbalance and create more gender equity. Gender equity means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. All the research strongly confirms this as being an important factor in developing more women leaders. So let us consider:
As long ago as 2005, Brewster et al defined talent management as occurring on a global basis. It is a far broader concept than a series of international assignments for young potential. They describe a picture of being able to retain and attract the best talent anywhere in the world. Global brands like Diageo, Shell and Rolls Royce attach great importance to developing a positive brand for potential recruits.
In Japan, Ikigai is a popular concept that makes millions of people want to get out of bed in the morning. It is translates simply as the ‘reason for being’. The term ikigai is composed of two Japanese words: ‘iki’ referring to life, and ‘kai’, which roughly means “the realisation of what one expects and hopes for”.
With summer just around the corner, it is a good time to health check your mentoring programme to ensure it’s in tip-top condition to keep it going over the holiday months and into the autumn. Effective formal mentoring needs nurturing and energising to deliver the best outcomes. So, whether you are an external consultant or an internal co-ordinator, freshen up your mentoring programme before people drift off on their holiday.
The more self-aware a mentor can be about their behaviour and the degree to which they listen to their mentees around what the mentee is looking for from them, the better the relationship can be.