The 2 Kinds of Mentor Conversations Needed to Increase Performance & Results

TWO KINDS OF MENTORING CONVERSATIONS
© 2003, Barry Sweeny

Highly effective mentoring programs donít just assign mentors and then hope quality relationships, effective learning, and performance improvement will happen. The most effective programs create structures and strategies to ensure their desired results will occur.

The fundamental truth is that effective mentoring is a mutual learning situation. At the foundation of all effective mentoring, is the core requirement that each individual is BEING MENTORED, and at the same time is MENTORING.

Mentors must be positioned to give their own experience and the wisdom that comes from such experience. It is the access to that wisdom and experience which accelerates protege learning and development. You know that. What you may not have considered is that...
Mentors need to be mentored and supported in their own learning too. Mentors donít have all the answers, especially not in todayís fast paced, competitive, ever changing, performance and results-oriented environment!

Adjoining this text is what this looks like in graphic form. In that graphic, the P represents when I am a Protege, learning from my mentor in areas where I want to grow. The M is when I am a Mentor, sharing with others what I have learned to support their growth. Of course, each mentoring relationship above and below the one being discussed repeats this pattern.

So if mentors need to be continual learners too, from whom will they learn?

Their PEERS - Other practicing and growing mentors
EXPERT Mentors - Someone we call the Mentor of Mentors, (MoM).

Therefore, there are two kinds of mentoring relationships in which we should all be involved, expert-to-less experienced, and peer-to-peer. Here are some examples of how this can look.

Examples of Expert - Novice Mentoring are:

New employee induction mentoring
An experienced employee mentoring another experienced employee who knows less about a topic
Supervisor - employee mentoring
Leadership development or promotion-oriented mentoring
Adult - student mentoring.

Examples of Peer-to-Peer Mentoring are:

Peer follow up support for implementation of training
Peer mentoring to support reflective practice among experienced employees.

This core concept must be implemented at every level of the program and for each stakeholder IF the program expects improvements in individual performance and results to occur. For info on how to do that, JOIN IMA and gain access to the paper on this web site titled "The Strategic Mentoring Culture".

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