Training mentors and mentees: an outline

Summary

• Levels of training
• Outline content for line manager briefing on mentoring
• Outline content for mentor training
• Outline content for mentee training
• Outline content for advanced mentor training

Levels of training

The aim of any training course in mentoring is to equip participants with the skills they will need to be confident, effective and safe in the role in which they are expected to operate. For most organizations, it is convenient to categorize training programmes as:

• Line Manager Briefing – aimed at educating line managers of mentees and other stakeholders about mentoring, but not necessarily transferring the skills required.
• Mentor training – basic level of skills, aimed at individuals who have been recruited to take on a mentoring role.
• Mentee training – aimed at individuals who have either requested a mentor or have been identified as a mentee and will be provided with a mentor.
• Advanced mentor training – aimed at people, who want to develop and advance their existing mentoring skills

Line manager briefing

Nature of training: short (up to two hour) introduction to basic rationale for mentoring and the core principles. Delivered as classroom presentation, webinar, or one-to-one briefing for senior leaders, as appropriate.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the briefing, participants should:

• Have a clear understanding of the purpose and objectives of mentoring within Anglo-American
• Understand their own role in supporting mentoring and their line report as mentee
• Be clear about the key benefits of mentoring for themselves and their teams

Content

• The case for mentoring
• What mentoring means at Anglo-American
• Responsibilities of mentors and mentees
• Creating the environment for mentoring
• How mentoring can benefit you and your team
• How to support your mentee in their mentoring
• Opportunities for questions

Mentor training

Nature of training: Two-day intensive workshop, with follow up and support, aimed at prospective mentors. The ratio of theory to practice should be approximately 25/ 75. (It’s better to learn the basics well!)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants should:

• Understand the concept and benefits of mentoring
• Be clear on the role of mentor and mentee
• Understand how mentoring works
• Understand how a mentor helps and adds value
• Have a clear understanding of key mentoring skills and techniques
• Be confident in their ability to use basic mentoring techniques and approaches
• Have begun to plan their further development as a mentor

Content

• What is mentoring (generally and at Anglo-American)?
• Principles of personal reflective space
• Role of mentor and mentee
• Creating the environment for mentoring
• Core skills and behaviours of mentors
  • Building rapport
  • Listening & mindfulness
  • Asking powerful questions
  • Summarising
  • Giving feedback/ being a critical friend
  • Being a proactive role model/ using the mentor as a role model
  • Reviewing the mentoring partnership

• Develop and practice of core mentoring competencies – skills development practice sessions (mentoring conversations)

• Review of how the relationship develops over time (phases of the mentoring relationship)
• Phase 1: Building rapport
• Phase 2: Establishing and working with goals.
• Phase 3: Making progress
• Phase 4 & 5: Winding up and Moving on

• The four key roles of a mentor – coach, counsellor, networker and role model
• Mentor competencies

• Managing the relationship
  • Bringing concerns to the surface
  • Scenarios that may prove challenging
  • What derails mentoring relationships?
  • How do you know it’s working well?
  • Managing the review sessions
• Your continued development as a mentor
  • How will you continue to grow in confidence and competence?
  • Your Personal Development Plan as a mentor
  • Using supervision / Action Learning Sets to support your development as a mentor

Continued support

To ensure that mentors continue to practice their new skills until they become embedded, you will need to provide opportunities for them to review their progress and support each other. Common ways of doing this include:

• “Light-touch” supervision by a professional supervisor
• Peer-mentoring review sessions
• Measurement to establish how consistently and how effectively participants are using mentoring behaviours
• Action learning sets

Training for mentees

Nature of training: One-day workshop aimed at helping mentees understand how they can be effective in being mentored. The workshop for mentees will follow a similar pattern to the workshop for mentors, but will include fewer mentor skills and technique practices and more activities relating to, for example, self-discovery, identity and setting developmental goals.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the training, participants should:

• Understand the concept and benefits of mentoring
• Be clear on the role of mentor and mentee
• Understand how mentoring works
• Understand how a mentor helps and adds value
• Have a clear understanding of key mentoring skills and techniques
• Have a clear understanding of how to make the most of mentoring
• Have increased insight into the kind of issues, on which it would be useful for them to seek mentoring

Content:

• What is mentoring (generally and at Anglo-American)?
• Principles of personal reflective space
• What makes a great mentee and mentor
• Core skills and behaviours of mentor and mentee
• Skills of being an effective mentee:
  • Preparing for the mentoring session
  • Listening, questioning, challenging, analysing
  • Reflecting after the mentoring session
  • Monitoring and managing your own progress
  • Effective goal management
  • Managing setbacks
  • How to make the most of mentoring
  • Giving feedback to your mentor, on their mentoring
• Establishing developmental needs and personal improvement goals (making your personal development plan a living document)

• Mentoring conversation practice sessions

• Review of how the relationship develops over time (phases of the mentoring relationship)

• The four key roles of a mentor – coach, counsellor, networker and role model
• Mentee competencies

• Mentee challenges and considerations
  • Keeping momentum
  • Thinking of the triggers
  • Power distance – speaking truth to power
• Getting started
  • What happens next; who are your key support contacts?
  • Support available to you

Advanced mentor training

Nature of training: Half-day, practice-based workshop or seminar aimed at mentors who have already had some experience in the role of mentor and who wish to improve their competence. The format of this workshop is based primarily on participants’ experiences in the mentoring role and their needs for practical ways to improve their helping style.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the training, participants should:

• Have reflected on mentoring experience so far
• Have reinforced their confidence in their ability to perform as a mentor
• Have a clearer understanding of the links between theory and practice
• Have clear goals about improving their competence in the role over time
• Have explored and practiced advanced skills and approaches

Content:

• Review of goals and progress towards them
• Discussion of latest understanding of the competencies required for the role
• Review of skills and techniques covered in initial training – how well have these worked in practice?
• Reflection of experience as mentor
• Discussion of difficult situations encountered and alternative ways of tackling them.
• Benchmarking against good practice
• Introduction to new techniques and opportunity to practice
• Your continued development as a mentor
  • How will you continue to grow in confidence and competence?
  • Your Personal Development Plan as a mentor
  • Using supervision / Action Learning Sets to support your development as a mentor

Quality control

It is general good practice to have a robust quality management procedure for mentor training. Elements to consider include:

• Experience and credibility of the trainers
• Participant perspectives of the training immediately afterwards and after three to six months (e.g. what has stuck with them?)
• External validation through either a) accreditation with a recognised mentoring body or b) review of course materials by an independent external expert
• Internal validation by experienced mentors within the organization
• Measurement of specific changes in behaviour by mentors and mentees at intervals after training
• Regular programme review (e.g. every six months) to identify and implement opportunities for improvement.

© David Clutterbuck, 2014

Prof David Clutterbuck
Coaching and Mentoring International Ltd
Woodlands, Tollgate,
Maidenhead,
Berks, UK. SL6 4LJ

www.coachingandmentoringinternational.org
e-mail: info@coachingandmentoringinternational.org
Company registration number : 08158710