Why Mentor training is important to the success of Mentoring Programmes
The success of mentoring in the workplace is at risk if the mentor is not well equipped for their role. Effective mentor training is the key to avoid mentoring programmes from failing. Training gives guidance and maps out the path to a successful relationship.
For mentor relationships to be successful it requires the mentor to feel confident in the skills of mentoring and understand the process of mentoring. Research (Klasen, N., & Clutterbuck, D. 2002) has demonstrated that relationships are three times more likely to succeed if formal training of mentors and mentees has taken place.
Mentors need to know the purpose and structure of the mentoring programme, their role, expectations, and best practices before commencing a mentoring relationship. Programs that start without mentoring training usually result in a poor mentoring experience, and eventually, the program fizzles out or fails.
There is often an assumption that any successful manager can mentor effectively, with minimal (if any) training, and that mentoring is innate or easy to acquire. In my experience, this is not the case. Since so many mentors never had mentors themselves, they lack mental maps for how it is done well. Evidence indicates that poor mentoring can be worse for employees than no mentoring at all. Ill-prepared mentors not only give mentoring a bad name in an organisation they can also have a negative impact on retention, commitment, and employee development — the very objectives that instigate mentoring initiatives in the first place.
Why Mentors need training
Training provides an understanding of the purpose of the mentoring programme
Training provides a better understanding of the program’s purpose, goals and objectives, expected frequency of the meetings, duration of each session, and duration of the program. When the participants know the purpose of the program and its structure, they can focus on starting the relationship on the right note.
Mentoring Training is the best way to understand a mentor-mentee relationship
Often, participants are unsure about the relationship, how to start their sessions, how to build rapport, trust and a mutual understanding, what to expect, and how to fulfil each other’s expectations. Training gives participants a clear idea as to how to go about building a relationship. The resources that participants get during the program help them start and maintain the relationship without a hitch.
From a recent poll on LI I conducted, over 73% of respondents felt that mentors require training & accreditation. Whereas only 22% felt that no training is required to become a mentor. However, interestingly when doing a Google search there are few organisations that offer stand-alone mentor training.
Mentoring appears to be less regulated than coaching, mentors are more likely to be selected based on their work experience and knowledge rather than their people skills. However, just because they are a subject matter expert does not mean they will be a great mentor.
Having trained and supervised mentors, comments from new mentors are often around their lack of awareness of what good mentoring looks like and how to address specific issues that come up with their mentees, areas that they feel require training and support on.
This is particularly relevant when mentoring young people. I know, as a mentor with the Princes Trust for the last 13 years, you can feel out of your depth (and very old!) when supporting young people. Mentor training and on-going support through supervisions lessen these fears and provides a foundation for mentoring as well as an opportunity to get valuable feedback and reassurance.
How much training is needed?
Mentoring is a skill, training provides an opportunity for mentors to practice these skills and get some feedback. Typically, mentor training last for 1-2 days and focuses on building awareness of the role and raises awareness of key mentoring skills. Increasingly I am aware that organisations look for short, ½ day ‘briefings’ for new mentors, this is a challenge as the time is limited for getting across essential awareness and the skills required. The shorter the training up front, the more time and increased need for on-going follow up review and support. As a broad rule, it takes a minimum of 16 hours over the first year of mentoring for a mentor to require the skills and know-how they need.
Depending on the mentoring context and the level at which mentoring is to take place, the training duration can vary. If you are looking at in-house mentors, you are usually looking at 1-2 days, with day 2 being focused on the more practical aspects of mentoring, an opportunity to put mentoring into practice and receive feedback.
However, in my experience of training and supervising mentors, this one-off training event is not sufficient to ensure quality of mentoring practice. Mentors need to follow up the training with on-going support via supervisions and ‘drop-in’ sessions. Supervisions are usually done on a quarterly basis with ‘drop-in’ opportunities every 4-6 weeks these are less formal and tend to be a general exchange and discussion of practice and experience.
What should mentor training cover?
As a minimum, the programme should cover:
- The purpose of the programme
- The objectives and processes
- Roles and responsibilities of the mentor and mentee and other key stakeholders
- Contracting, agreeing expectations and boundaries
- Skills and techniques (with an opportunity to practice in a safe environment) this is key!
- Understanding the life cycle of a relationship
Why Accreditation?
Few mentoring programmes offer mentors the opportunity to acquire an accreditation in the role. Most accredited courses are aimed at both coaching & mentoring, many mentors don’t necessarily want to go down a coaching route even though the skills are similar. In my experience of delivering C & M quals (ILM) the focus tends to be on coaching and the terms coaching and mentoring are often interchangeable which is confusing if you want to focus on mentoring alone.
Accreditation is linked with credibility, quality assurance, bench marking and good practice. It gives the profession a standing and respect, mentors that I work with want to become accredited ‘to be taken seriously’ in the HRD field.
Often with accreditation you are required to log your hours and have a minimum number of clients:
EMCC Global Individual Accreditation – EMCC being the most recognised lead body for mentoring
For a Foundation accreditation, the minimum requirements are:
Length of experience 1 year
Number client contact hours 50 hr
Number of clients 5 clients
12 hours of mentoring with a max of 2 clients
Both accreditations require supervision and evidence of mentoring practice.
For mentors who don’t want to go down a formal qualification route, I have designed and have received approval (The Institute of Leadership & Management) for my own programme that involves:
- A Webinar (overview of what mentoring is)
- Self-assessment – is mentoring for me?
- 2 days of mentor training
- Live assessment of a mentoring session
- Minimum of 2 supervisions in first 6 months of mentoring
- Self-reflective journal
- Mentor log
Supervision is a requirement even after accreditation. To ensure good practice and on-going support and reflective practice.
In summary..
I believe that mentor training is important for mentoring programmes to be successful, its not enough to be an expert in a particular field or have extensive years of experience, to be a good mentor you need to have certain skills, an interest in the development of others, be able to look past your own ego, have empathy, and be willing to give up your time to support the interests of others.
It is not for everyone, and not everyone can do it, becoming a mentor takes commitment and a desire to help and support others, it is rewarding, a discovery as to the self-value, confidence, empowerment that a mentor can not only develop in their mentees but also discover in themselves.
How I can help…
If you would like to explore mentoring in your organisation and how it can work for you and your staff, then please get in touch. Together we can identify what you want to achieve from a mentoring programme and how to go about achieving it.
I have put together resources to help you if you are considering introducing a Mentoring Programme in your organisation, you can download the resources HERE
More information is available at: www.fptrainingltd.co.uk or email me at: fiona.porter@fptrainingltd.co.uk or call me on: (+44) 07711 967649
