What Mentoring Is – The Benefits of Mentoring

What is Mentoring?

I would define the following to describe what Mentoring IS

Confidential
Understanding and trusting
1-1, off line
Person Focussed
Building capacity and intangible skills
Partnership and friendship
Mutual, 2 way learning relationship
Building self reliance

What Mentoring is NOT

This compares to what mentoring is not and the relationship is not in place to achieve the following

Undermining the line manager
Secretive
Task Focussed
Therapy
Protection
Direct sponsorship
Doing it for you/giving the answer

Why this matters is to ensure that the benefits from the Mentoring relationship can be achieved by all the four key stakeholders in a mentoring scheme/relationship

The Mentoring Stakeholders

Mentor
Mentee
Line Manager / Team Manager
The Organisation / Business / Team / Club

BENEFITS OF MENTORING

Benefits for Mentor	Benefits for Mentee
Opportunity to take time out and reflect	Personal growth and development
Fulfilment of own developmental needs	Increased self esteem
Increased motivation and sense of achievement	Positive role model
Revitalised interest in work	A safe area to try out ideas and thoughts
Increased sense of value and worth	Access to networks and other learning resources
Enhanced interpersonal skills	Taking on responsibility for own learning and training
Increased motivation	Opportunity for personal reflection and focus
Enhanced Status	A source of stretch and challenge
Increased Influence	A source of guidance and perspective – been there, done it, got the tee-shirt!
Close relationship with Mentee	Enhance existing skills and learn new skills
Satisfaction of seeing someone else grow and achieve	Increased motivation and development
Enhanced understanding of different generations	Increased sense of value, worth and capability to achieve

Benefits for Line Manager / Team Manager	Benefits for The Organisation / Business
Improvement in Mentee performance	Means of supporting succession planning
Better relationship with Mentee	Better recruitment, retention and progression
Better motivated team member	Motivated workforce with improved skills
Shared responsibility for developing mentee	Reinforcement of culture change
Higher productivity for the team	Helps to build a learning culture
A second opinion	Cost effective personalised development programme
	Maximising human potential
	Improved communications across the organisation
	Increased sense of value of people as individuals in the organisation