Mentoring

The Institute of Water occupies a unique niche within the UK water industry. It is peer-driven and caters to every profession working nationally to ensure the public are supplied with water.

by Rob Bradley CEnv,

This body of membership is diverse and ranges across all age groups, providing a rich depth of experience that very few other institutes can supply.

In my experience two of the most powerful ways members can access and leverage this range of knowledge is by speaking to delegates at conferences and through mentor relationships. As members are encouraged to interact on a non-hierarchal basis, there is an acknowledged friendly and welcoming atmosphere present at our events, which lends itself to networking and making life-long acquaintances. It is a difficult challenge for all areas and HQ to adapt to the virus crisis during 2020, especially as many of us eagerly anticipate meeting up annually at the National and specialist conferences around the country. However, through an established online tool, we can both access and build on the shared experiences of membership.

During the mentoring-process the mentor shares their personal skills, knowledge and experience with the mentee to enable him or her to explore their personal and professional situation. It is a two-way process in which the mentor and mentee work together to set and achieve predetermined goals and objectives.

Mentoring is a way of enabling the mentee to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to perform at a higher level, and of giving them access to impartial, non-judgmental guidance and support.

In many ways, this summer is an optimum time to get acquainted with the tools, process and potential outcomes of a mentoring relationship. Active learning and listening are two essential skills which are going to become much more important as society across the world comes to terms with restricted movement orders. A professional mentoring relationship also provides other core attributes which every employee will need to help cope with the challenges of this period: personal resilience and trust.

Now with significantly more emphasis on communicating and working remotely, having access of trusted mentoring relationship can also give unexpected benefits. For example, the opportunity to experience ‘reverse mentoring’ where learning how to manage and improve web access technology may come from new entrants to the workplace rather than established professionals.

The platform used by the Institute is self-contained with ample guidance and tools built in.

The final note I will add at this time is for anyone looking to make their first step into a mentoring to think about what kind of goals they really want. Some may be short term, such as achieving a registration grade, other examples might to as simple as being valued. Take the plunge and let your ambition guide you!