mentoring
What is Mentoring?
While negotiating life's 'pathway' have you ever wished for a map of the landscape up ahead or perhaps someone to guide you, who has already successfully negotiated the path?
If this sounds familiar, a mentor may be what you need. The word 'mentor' comes from the ancient Greek story "Odyssey". In the story Odysseus was leaving to fight in the Trojan war. Because he was concerned for the well-being and education of his son whom he had to leave behind, he appointed Mentor, a trusted friend who was wise and experienced in life, to advise and encourage his son. In a mentoring relationship it is such wisdom and experience that are drawn upon, to help a person further along their life-journey or career path.
Mentoring is:
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an a-symmetrical relationship where one person is the helper and the other is being helped
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a process of teaching skills by example. (Modelling, apprenticeship)
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an offering of learnings based on experience in a certain field
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a relationship based on trust
Mentoring aims:
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to identify personal strengths in the one being mentored
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to inform
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to encourage and support
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to find leverage out of areas of stuckness
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to equip
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to develop skills
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to provide insight and wisdom drawn from the mentor's previous experience
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to facilitate personal development
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to identify useful network systems
Gordon Shea writes, "Mentoring can be defined as having a significant beneficial effect on the life or style of another person, generally as a result of personal one on one contact. A mentor is one who offers knowledge, insight, perception or wisdom that is especially useful to the other person." (1992.)
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