Section outline

  • What Makes Mentoring Effective?

    The blog from the Chronicle of Evidence Based Mentoring suggests 5 features of highly effective mentoring relationships.

    They are:

    1. The Alliance: 'the working relationship and partnership that is forged between a mentor and mentee...the alliance consists of three components: the bond that is forged, agreement on the goals, and agreement on the specific tasks and activities that will be undertaken to achieve those goals. The alliance builds on initial trust and positive expectations from both parties to create a collaborative, purposeful bond centered around the common goals and tasks of the intervention.'

    2. Empathy and Related Constructs: 'empathy is “a complex process by which an individual can be affected by and share the emotional state of another, assess the reasons for another’s state, and identify with the other by adopting his or her perspective.” This implies not just sensing another’s feelings and emotions but understanding and and seeing things from their perspective.'

    Attunement: 'Related to this concept is attunement, or mentors’ ability to read and attend to the needs of their mentees.'

    Positive Regard: 'The distant cousin of empathy and attunement, positive regard, constitutes another common factor in good relationships...positive regard [is] not only noticing but expressing appreciation for another’s positive attributes.'

    Genuineness:  'Another related construct is genuineness, or the sense that the mentor is being authentic.'

    3. Positive Relationship Expectations: 'Mentees and mentors both need to have expectations that their work will be successful – something that is not always appreciated in mentoring programs.'

    4.  Cultural Adaptations: 'mentoring...emerged from the dominant cultural groups within North America and Western Europe. As such, how mentees’ problems and solutions are framed, and even the ritual of one-on-one meetings, may not always align with the values and perspectives of ethnic and racial minority groups.'
     
    5. Mentor Skills and Experience: 'perhaps not every volunteer has the capacity to be a mentor...Mentors also need to be open to learning not just from the program but from their mentees, and willing to ask for advice when they need it...mentors should be open and willing to get the support they need from their programs and avoid an overly prescriptive, heavy-handed, or rigid mentoring approach.'
     

    And a possible 6th: Homework and Practice: 'A common factor that is not enumerated in traditional therapy literature, but which has emerged in recent years is homework or activities that the mentee can work on between sessions.'

    Below we switch to a slightly different topic - that of how can mentees best benefit from the mentoring process:

    Mentorability - the ability of mentees to benefit from mentoring

    The concept of mentorability has emerged 'The key to mentorability is an open and reciprocal partnership between mentor and mentee'. The TED Talk blog Are you mentorable? discusses the principal characteristics of mentorability.

    1. You understand the value of their time.

    2. You’re clear about what you’re looking for from a mentor.

    3. You can accept input, advice and — sometimes — criticism.

    4. For the lifespan of your relationship, you keep asking, “Am I a good mentee?”

    5. You’re open to whatever you can learn from your mentor.

    If you have 11 minutes, you can see on a YouTube presentation how Victoria Black says No One is Talking to the Mentees:

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