Entering a mentorship with a learning mindset | Article

A successful mentoring relationship allows individuals to access a pool of experience that is larger, or at least different, from their own. It is a trusting relationship where mentees can discuss issues and concerns in confidence, benefitting from their mentor’s advice and experience. This becomes particularly useful when accessing ideas and experiences from another sector.

Ensure your mentor is right for your

The first step is to ensure that you have the right mentor, you need to be able to trust them, have a good rapport, feel able to share information fully with them, maybe have similar values or communication styles, but ultimately feel comfortable being totally honest about your challenges, goals, hopes and dreams. We recommend using a chemistry meeting in the first instance to check for this, and only moving on to a more formal relationship if both parties are happy to proceed.

Set the scene for success

This will include:

  • Agreeing ‘ground rules’;
  • Agreeing practical arrangements;
  • Agreeing and prioritising objectives.

Set some overall goals for the mentoring relationship at the beginning and add some specific objectives for the month ahead each time you meet. This will help you to see the progress you’re making. Make sure you are being proactive in the relationship; your mentor will help guide you to success, but it is not their job to lead the meetings or come up with the agendas. It is also helpful to be SMART around your objectives and to come to the meeting with the progress you have made, challenges you have encountered, or obstacles you have found in your way. It is also helpful to be honest about what you have and have not managed to do.

Have a learning mindset

It is important to be open to feedback. To gain the most from the relationship, the mentor will need to be able to provide constructive feedback, and this is more likely to be fruitful if you are not defensive about receiving it. It is also important to write things down, so you can return to it, check in on it, and see what progress is being made.

Finally, it is important to understand when the relationship has come to an end, whether this be after the SMART objectives have been reached, a set period has elapsed, or both parties have reached a conclusion that it has reached its natural end. Your mentor may well stay in your network forever, but your regular catch-ups are no longer needed.

Mentoring through WIG

WIG's mentoring programmes support mentors and mentees to develop fresh perspectives and gain insight from another sector.  We work with our diverse membership of public, private and not-for-profit organisations to create mentoring opportunities tailored to individual development needs.

To  help you form mentoring partnerships, we offer two different services:

  • Our bespoke mentoring service is where our specialist talent team will work with you, on an individual basis, to find you a dedicated senior mentor for up to a year. Fees apply with discounts for member organisations
  • Mentor Match is our self-service online platform that uses a matching algorithm to help you find a mentor, mentee or a reverse mentor. Free to WIG members. Explore here.

Written by

Katy manages our Talent function, designed to maximise cross-sector learning through operational exposure and one-to-one coaching. Within this she helps co-ordinate and run the Charity Next programme, arrange and facilitate both secondments and mentoring opportunities between sectors. She also directly recruits as part of NED and Trustee recruitment.

 

Before joining WIG, Katy worked as a Director for Badenoch & Clark, a specialist professional services recruitment company, personally specialising in senior level recruitment to Social Housing, Not-For-Profit and Local Government, as well as sitting on their operational board.

 

She sits on a customer committee for a Housing Association, and as a Trustee for a Grant Giving Charity. And in her spare time, when not looking after her three children, she enjoys swimming, running and skiing.

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