Mentoring Training

SETA accredited Mentoring Training Course: Facilitating, implementing and administrating a Mentoring programme in your workplace.

This accredited course can be used for applications, for example an application to the Department of Mineral Resources for a Mine Engineer’s Certificate of Competency requires the applicant to include a certificate of competence as a mentor.

The problem with mentoring programmes:

Good mentoring relationships have the potential to change people’s lives for the better, forever. Yet, these vital relationships often flounder before they have had the chance to have their effect.

Here are some reasons why:

Day to day work pressures see Mentors and Mentees stop meeting after a while and the personal and professional goals they hoped to achieve don’t materialise
Mentors and Mentees go through the motions of completing the administrative requirements of their relationship without getting into a dynamic results-producing phase
Mentors and Mentees lose their way and it becomes unclear what they are supposed to be doing

So what needs to be done?

One proven way of making mentoring work is to:

- Appoint a professional mentoring programme facilitator, and thereby ensure you avoid the common mentoring mistakes;
- Continuously discover and nurture talent within your organisation.

Why clients like working with Executive Coaching and Facilitation:

Our experienced facilitators work easily and comfortably across all levels within an organisation. They are helpful in facilitating a mentoring programme that works well and delivers expected results.

Executive Coaching and Facilitations was founded in 1999 and we have been working in the field of mentoring ever since. We have dedicated ourselves to assist organisations to create powerful, easy to maintain and effective mentoring programmes.

FAQs

What are the duties of the mentoring programme facilitator?

Ensures the objectives are stated quantifiably and determines to which extent they are being achieved or not
Provides guidelines, which mentors and protégés use to determine the way of working and expectations for their own relationship.
Ensures the relationships are working and achieving productively
Communicates knowledgeably and continuously to the programme champion/sponsor
Is available as an information /materials resource (time management, negotiation skills, influencing strategies, conflict management skills, empathy, assertiveness, stress handling, diversity sensitivity, confronting skills, giving recognition, creating motivational environments, listening skills. Etc.)
Is a courteous reminder for meetings, commitments, objectives, deadlines, milestones, checkpoints and corporate values.
Participates in review meetings to track progress
Encourages
Provides coaching and mentoring and giving feedback skills where needed.
Helps word agreements
Facilitates team building, or joint events and workshops with all mentors and mentees
Challenges partnerships to stretch
Notices if partnerships are faltering and proposes alternative arrangements in such cases
Assists with evaluation at the end of the period

How does your organisation stand to gain by introducing a mentoring programme?

It’s a cost effective way of developing company-specific skills without the cost of training courses
A less experienced person can become productive quickly by a overcoming a protracted learning curve
Costly mistakes can be avoided when mentors point them out proactively
New recruits stand better chance of being vested well
The organisation enjoys better communication through its different layers
Healthy networks and friendships are formed which lead to better co-operation
Jaded experts can enjoy a resurgence in motivation when their skills and know-how are used and appreciated by others
Good staff can be retained better
Specific targeted groups can be identified and developed at a fast pace
An organisation can become a learning organisation with pooling, growing and transferring its wisdom
The gap between training courses and degrees can quickly be transformed into something of value by real world application
Talent is not wasted but nurtured, developed and retained
It can help individuals in an organisation overcome their reluctance to change
Succession plans can continuously form
Benefiting participants can develop a sense of loyalty to their organisation

What motivations are there for mentors to participate in a mentoring programme?

Personal and job satisfaction
Being recognised for their experience and knowledge
An enhanced feeling of self worth as they help develop others
It’s an opportunity to ensure the mentor is indeed at the forefront of his or her game, or if not, it’s a wake up call to update
The opportunity to encounter fresh perspectives

What kinds of people make good mentors?

People who:

Have a positive mindset towards being a mentor
Who have skills and experience to pass on to others
Like interacting with others
Have strong interpersonal skills
Are patient
Have respect in the organisation
Have good communication skills
Have a good knowledge of the organisation and are bought into its values and strategic objectives

What is expected from the mentees?

To carry out tasks, assignments and projects within agreed upon time frames
To seek guidance in his or her professional development
To set out to achieve new skills
To apply the skills
Act on expert advice
To maintain confidentiality

What are the risks to watch out for?

A lack of commitment from managers, mentors and mentees
Mentees who see being mentored as a right to which they are entitled
An absence of a system with accountability and monitoring
Burdening participants with a paperwork overload
A lack of training
A lack of consultation during the evaluation stage of a mentoring programme
Ineffective consultants and facilitators
Unclear goals and expectations
A resistance to change
Inflexibility and with diversity
Poor selection of Mentors
Gatekeepers such as PA’s, supervisors
Line managers who resist their reportee spending time with a senior person
A culture of mistrust and suspicion

Considering that there is seldom a perfect match, who works best with whom?

People who are geographically close

People who can work together easily
Personalities that click
When both parties had some choice in the matching arrangement
Cross functional mentoring makes for more relaxed relationships than career specific mentoring which can be to be stressful

What considerations need to be taken into account when introducing a mentoring programme in an organisation?

Is there a senior manager who will actively champion the project, and possibly be a mentor as well?
Is there agreement by necessary stakeholders that mentoring activities will be taking place across reporting lines and across departments?

Which stakeholders need to be consulted to ensure a successful mentoring programme?

Exec
Line managers
HR department

How do mentors and mentees decide which are the key areas to focus on?

Ask: What are the strategic areas the organisation wishes to excel at?
Which skills will enable that the organisation to achieve its strategic goals?
Mentors and mentees need to focus on those key, high leverage skills and work out specific objectives to enable the organisation to achieve its strategic goals

To what extent are the processes documented?

To a great extent, Documented events include:

Strategic objectives as communicated to mentors
Records of goals agreed upon
Records of meetings and review meetings

Who are the mentors accountable to?

Exco
The senior Mentor Champion

If mentors are selected for their expertise and experience, what do they need to learn from a facilitator?

How to conduct the goal setting conversations and review
A skill set grouped as “Emotional Intelligence”
How to foster discovery and growth in the mentee
Skills relating to giving recognition, assertiveness
Coaching skills
How to work within the limitations and parameters of a mentoring programme
Maintaining rights of mentees and mentors

Does it make financial sense: What is the possible return on investment?

Compare the cost of just one bad appointment and the need to make a reappointment
Try and put a number to the cost of a labour dispute, low morale, high absenteeism, high wastage and high mistakes
Try and put a Rand value to the protégés being a bottom line expense, versus being contributors to the organisation achieving strategic outcomes and goals

What are the next steps?

Establish a steering committee of managers and interested stakeholders to whom mentors will be accountable
Decide on implementation structures
Approve a budget
Appoint a programme facilitator
Clarify the strategic expectations from the mentoring relationships
Identify mentors and mentees
Match mentors and mentees
Train all the necessary participants
Mentors and mentees jointly agree upon specific goals they will achieve and plan for learning needed
Implement the plans and monitor the process
Regularly communicate and evaluate and fine-tune the process
Where appropriate, publicize achievements
Conclude the project
Evaluate the outcomes of the project against the declared goals