Mentoring Scheme - An introduction

Mentoring Scheme An introduction

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a process during which someone (the ‘mentor’) takes an interest in another person’s (the ‘mentee’s’) development, imparting their own experience, knowledge and expertise. It is about ‘pushing’ information to the other person and guiding them to arrive at their own solutions.

What is the aim of mentoring?

The aim of mentoring is to support and encourage individuals to manage their own learning, so that they are able to develop their skills, improve their performance and maximise their potential to become the best that they can be.

There are a wide variety of times when mentoring can be used and these can be at different points in someone’s working career. For example, during their induction, when working towards a promotion or when changing roles as part of their Continued Professional Development (CPD).

Mentoring can: • Support a desire to enhance someone’s capacity for self-development.

• Support and motivate in the key areas of performance and career development.

• Compliment existing staff development.

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What mentoring is not It’s important to recognise what mentoring is not.

Mentoring is not counselling – counselling relates more to something that has happened to an individual, so tends to focus on the past. This is less likely to be relevant in a work environment, as qualified counsellors or therapists will focus on the root cause of an issue to help individuals to recognise and deal with situations.

Mentoring is not coaching – coaching is an approach used to enable individuals to explore their motivations and overcome blockers that might hold them back. Coaching encourages individuals to improve their own thinking and to facilitate learning, rather than directing it.

Mentoring is not training - training involves gaining an understanding of what needs to be learned and then providing the required training. It’s about imparting knowledge and skills and also requires a measure of the effectiveness of the training. A mentor doesn’t need to be a qualified trainer.

It is important to understand though, that the skills involved in mentoring, coaching and counselling do overlap. Mentors, coaches and counsellors all need to be able to ask good questions that will challenge the other person and encourage them to identify the course of action they want to pursue, and to actively listen to what the other person is asking or saying. They also need to be empathetic when working with others.

“ The delicate balance in mentoring someone, is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.”

Steven Spielberg

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What is a ‘mentor’?

As defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, a mentor is ‘an experienced and trusted advisor’.

The role of a mentor includes: • Being a great listener • Asking good questions to help your understanding of the mentee’s goal or situation • Sharing knowledge and experience • Accessing or sharing informal networks • Providing continuous support and encouragement • Offering guidance and advice • Challenging assumptions and limiting beliefs • Encouraging self reflection • Highlighting the potential outcomes of decision making • Being a ‘critical friend’

A mentor will usually be a colleague, but not generally a Line Manager, in that they will not have direct responsibility for the other person’s performance; however, they will be responsible for encouraging them to work towards individual objectives.

They will draw on their professional and personal experience to support the other person, also listening and providing information and encouragement where appropriate.

“ A mentor is an individual who is willing to help someone less experienced gain confidence, clearer purpose, insight and wisdom.”

David Clutterbuck

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What is a ‘mentee’?

As defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, a mentee is ‘a person who is advised, trained, or counselled by a mentor.’

Mentoring is about getting support for your development, whatever your needs may be.

Working with a mentor will result in greater self-awareness of your unique talents and also any gaps in skills or knowledge that you have. By using reflection, you will learn what works best for you now and in the future.

As a mentee, you may be thinking about: • Focusing on your own development • Being new to your role • Your career goals for the future • Being more effective or more motivated in your role • Acquiring new skills • Facing a steep learning curve

By accessing a mentoring scheme, you could gain a fresh perspective on how to develop, or get the opportunity to broaden your existing skills.

If you would like to seek support from someone over a period of time, to improve your performance or support your career progression, you may want to consider the British Gymnastics Mentoring Scheme.

“ A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.”

Zig Ziglar

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What is the British Gymnastics Mentoring Scheme?

The British Gymnastics Mentoring Scheme is available to all staff and anyone can apply to be either a ‘mentor’ or ‘mentee’. Those who wish to apply as part of their continued development can do so at any time, but it is likely that applications will be identified through a one-to-one meeting or through the Performance Evaluation process.

Why be a mentor?

Whatever your professional background, or level within the organisation, you can become a mentor.

Although the focus is on supporting the development of another person, you will also benefit enormously from this learning relationship through: • Personal development – refining existing skills e.g. communication and interpersonal skills, and learning new skills to support others • Supporting a learning experience – feeling a sense of satisfaction from helping a colleague to grow • Constructive feedback – receiving feedback from your mentees about how well the relationship is developing • Accessing a learning network – participating in development events as part of a group of mentors • Having a unique experience – taking time away from your usual role to develop a meaningful working relationship with someone Becoming a mentor provides an immense sense of personal achievement and satisfaction and can make a real difference to someone’s career.

“ A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.”

Bob Proctor

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Why be a mentee?

The focus of the scheme is to empower you to determine your own development needs with the support of others, and through self-reflection. As a mentee, the scheme will support you to develop your own strategies to meet your needs in a supportive, creative and positive learning relationship.

As a mentee, you will benefit from the scheme in a number of ways. You will gain: • Practical advice, encouragement and support • The opportunity to develop skills and observe others • A sounding board to discuss ideas and approaches • The opportunity to be challenged constructively • A role model • A source of knowledge and experience to tap into • Support to formulate a clear sense of personal direction

If you’re thinking about becoming a mentee, it’s important to consider the following: • What are you looking to get out of it?

• What do you want from a mentor?

• What areas do you want to develop?

• Is there something specific that you want to work on?

You need to be clear about what you want to gain from it and what you would consider a good outcome to be.

“ The true tragedy in most peoples lives is that they are far better than they imagine themselves to be and, as a result, end up being much less than they might be.”

Earl R. Smith II

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What are the benefits to the organisation?

For our organisation, investing time and resources into a mentoring scheme is a great way to develop emerging talent and support employee engagement.

As well as transferring critical business knowledge and skills, mentoring helps to develop a pipeline of future leaders who understand the skills and attitudes required to succeed within the organisation.

Investing in mentoring helps to: • Develop a culture of personal and professional growth • Share desired company behaviours and attitudes • Enhance leadership and coaching skills in managers • Improve staff morale, performance and motivation • Engage, retain and develop performers

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Joining the scheme If you would like to become a mentor or a mentee, you should request an application form from learning-development@british-gymnastics.org.

As a prospective mentor, you will be asked to provide information about your knowledge, skills and experience and what you believe you have to offer prospective mentees.

As a prospective mentee, you will be asked to provide information about your knowledge, skills and experience and what your expectations are from the scheme. You should be open and honest about your needs and what your expected outcome looks like.

Once your completed application form has been received via email, the Head of Organisational Development will arrange a meeting with you to discuss the scheme in more detail and check that it’s right for you.

Please note, the information that you include in your application form will be held only by the Learning & Development team, and will be used to find a suitable match, and for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

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Matching There is a process in place to ensure that mentors and mentees are matched appropriately based on skills and experience. In some cases, prospective mentees may join the scheme with a potential mentor in mind. In this case, both the mentee and the mentor would need to apply so that they can be matched.

Once a match has been made, the mentee will receive an email from Learning & Development with details of a potential mentor and will be given the opportunity to accept or decline the match. If they accept, the mentor will also receive a notification. Once both parties have confirmed that they are happy to initiate the learning relationship, they will receive a further information booklet to support them through their journey.

If one, or both parties are not comfortable with the match, Learning & Development will endeavour to find an alternative.

Please note, while there is no guarantee that a suitable match will be found straight away, Learning & Development will always come back to applicants with a progress update.

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Meeting arrangements Once a successful match has been made, it will be the responsibility of the mentor to contact the mentee and arrange a first meeting.

It is important that any mentoring relationship is based on trust and that any practical considerations are explored and agreed e.g. travel and location.

During the first meeting, it’s important to ensure that both parties get on well enough to continue. They will need to establish some ground rules and clarify expectations and goals.

They should talk about the frequency and timing of their meetings, how their relationship will work and how it will end.

Time commitment It is up to the mentor and mentee how often they meet and for how long. From the start of the relationship, both parties must be explicit about how much time they are prepared to commit.

We would expect the duration of the relationship to be between 6 and 12 months.

However, it could be longer if there is mutual consent and a learning need has been identified.

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Monitoring & evaluation The Learning & Development team will send an email to both the mentor and the mentee within the first two months of the relationship to check that everything is going well.

The mentor will also be asked to complete a Monitoring Form on a monthly basis and return it via email to Learning & Development, so that they can collate information on the scope and breadth of mentoring activity being carried out across the organisation.

A Final Evaluation Form will be completed at the end of the relationship by the mentee.

Ending the relationship If, at any point, either the mentor or the mentee feel that the mentoring relationship is no longer meeting their needs, that relationship can be ended. You will be provided with further information on how to do this, should you wish to join the scheme.

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What support will we mentors and mentees receive from the organisation?

Both parties will receive a further booklet containing some more detailed information and any relevant templates, including: • A Mentoring Agreement • A Mentor Profile • A Mentee Profile • A Monitoring Form (for mentors) • A Final Evaluation Form (for mentees) Mentors will also be expected to participate in some initial training which the Learning & Development team will brief them on.

Who to contact for more information For more information about the British Gymnastics Mentoring Scheme, or to request an application form to become either a mentor or mentee, please email learning-development@british-gymnastics.org

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Notes

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Notes

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