The First
"Mentor"
The function of mentoring has been active for a long time. It
began with an Greek man named "Mentor", a friend of
Odysseus. When Odysseus went to fight in the Trojan Wars he entrusted
his son Telemachus into Mentor's care. Mentor was a teacher, guide,
and protector to the boy over a number of years. When the relationship
ended, Telemachus started searching for his father. The Goddess
Athena appeared in the form of Mentor to help him in his search.
Thus, the spirit of Mentor lived on after him.
How is
Coaching Different From Mentoring? Do We Need Both?
Coaching is the support for technical, skills-related
learning and growth which is provided by another person who uses
observation, data collection and descriptive, nonjudgmental reporting
on specific requested behaviors and techniques. Coaches must use
open-ended questions to help the other person more objectively
see their own patterns of behavior and to prompt reflection, goal-setting,
planning and action to increase the desired results. Although
not always the case, often the coaching is focused on learning
job-related skills and the coaching is provided by a professional
colleague.
Mentoring is the all-inclusive relationship and process,
and includes everything done to support protégé
learning and growth. Usually this means functions of orientation
and professional development. It is the whole set of strategies
for support. Coaching is one of the sets of strategies which mentors
must learn and effectively use to increase their protégés'
skills and success. In other words, we need both mentoring and
coaching to maximize learning and development.
Essentially then, coaching is technical support
focused on development of the techniques effective employees must
know and be able to do, while mentoring is the larger context
and developmentally appropriate process for learning of technique
and all of the other professional and personal skills and understandings
needed for success.
For this reason, the author refers most often just to "mentoring",
since by his own definition, mentoring includes coaching.
Is Mentoring
a "Peer" Relationship or Not?
In most mentoring pairs, their purpose dictates
that the mentor has much more expertise and experience than the
protégé. The difference between the mentor and protégé
is valued because it is the source of learning for the protégé.
I call such a relationship "expert mentoring" or "expert-novice
mentoring".
In other cases, the differences are downplayed
and the support is framed as "peer mentoring" or "peer
coaching". Though not always the case, often use of the "peer"
label is because mentors are not adequately trained to work with
other adults. As a result, they make mistakes, find themselves
to be less than the effective mentors they hoped to be, and they
see protégés that do not "take the mentor's
advice". The flaw is entirely one of inadequate mentor
training.
When not well prepared, mentors
soon begin to redefine their role as "PEERS, not supervisors".
In other words, mentors' discomfort and ineffectiveness in sharing
their experience leads them to either:
- Adopt more an authoritative supervisory role
in which they would press for the desired changes, (usually
NOT preferred), or they ...
- Downplay the differences between themselves
and their protégés to increase their comfort in
this tricky relationship.
This one factor is the most common reason why
mentoring is typically ineffective at increasing performance and
results. As such, it becomes critical to our program's success
that we understand and effectively deal with these distinctions.
In fact, if handled well, the diversity of experiences
between mentors and their protégés should be seized
upon and celebrated as a strength and a necessity for their learning
from each other. That diversity, in any of its forms, must NOT
be down played, as it is the biggest resource available to ensure
protégé success and is the very reason that mentors
are selected for their experience.
