🔴⏮ [ Looking back at ] 15 years of mentoring
Mentoring is now a wide-spread practice that is more or less loosely understood, but that is always of great promise. After working on this subject for about 15 years and obtaining a PhD on the very subject in 2012, I thought it would interesting to look back and reflect.
In the past decade or so, I have written 70ish articles about mentoring, and I also realised that I had been working on the subject, whether as a researcher, a mentor myself, a programme designer, or a mentor trainer, for the past fifteen years. As a tribute to my dedication ;o) I'd like to share with you some old and more recent articles that I find are key for getting a true understanding of what mentoring can be in your organisation.
The why of mentoring is still not clear for many organisations.
Even now, in 2022, I find there is still a need to educate organisations, HR, managers, trainers, and consultants about mentoring. As the practice is getting more known, widespread, and, dare I say, "trendy," I'm afraid I still see misunderstanding, and confusion with coaching, sponsoring, tutoring, training, and consulting. And this is the number one reason why many organisations are not fully benefiting from it. Indeed, the posture of the mentor is delicate in an organisation, and the relationship requires trust and clear boundaries in order to navigate uncertainty, deep, meaningful mutual discovery, and ensure a mutually beneficial experience.
I think that defining what mentoring is and why it has its place in an organisation is key, hence my first white paper on strategic mentoring.