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Mentor – one
path to professional success
Mentoring is a journey. Setting out with only
a sense of destination, the traveller discovers how to chart
a path of their own. It is not the mentor’s journey. They
simply walk alongside those undertaking it as a collaborative
companion and insightful guide.
The most significant legacies the
mentor can leave the traveller are the:
- ability to set their own direction and choose wisely
from the paths available
- courage to acknowledge barriers and the strength to remove
them, and the
- empowerment to claim the starting points, the charting
of new territory and the arrivals at various destinations
as their own.
A mentor relationship
provides a safe environment in which the client can step back
from all that is going on to assess the effectiveness of their
behaviours, their interactions with others and their current
and potential value to the organisation in which they work.
The specific purpose will reflect the needs of the client
and the expectations of the client’s organisation. Outcomes
are determined up-front and form of the basis of the process
adopted by the mentor.
While the ultimate
goal is for the client to function effectively without the
assistance of a mentor, one-on-one mentoring works best when
there is a clear contract, a commitment to regular sessions
over an extended period.
Committed to effective
mentoring Alex Sutherland does:
- Encourage proactive thinking, confidence and strong self-esteem
- Listen sensitively and reflectively, creating the space
for the effective identification, exploration and resolution
of issues
- Provide honest, objective feedback, challenging misconceptions
and confronting unhelpful or destructive behaviour
- Coach a client towards effective ways of operating and
engaging with others
- Try to be a role model of integrity and trustworthiness,
and an example of the successful integration of the personal
and the professional.
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