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Creating an effective mentoring scheme
The MA’s professional development officer Tamsin Russell shares her top tips on setting up a mentoring scheme
Mentoring is often provided as part of a development programme to support learning and help employees transfer their learning back to their workplaces and within their roles.
There are a number of factors museums have to consider when setting up a mentoring scheme. For instance they have to decide whether to use internal or external mentors; what to include in a mentoring agreement; the role of line manager; how to select mentors and mentees to ensure they have mutual understanding.
Operation
Be clear about whether it is a mentoring scheme you need. It is common for mentoring and coaching to be confused but they are different. Do you want a mentor to share their expertise and experience? Or do you want a coach to ask questions to help the individual come to their own solutions and develop specific skills?
If it is mentoring you need to ensure you have a clear process for selecting mentors and mentees, providing relevant training, carrying out an induction, on-going training and support; and how you will evaluating success.
Key steps to take when developing a mentoring scheme include:
Mentor selection
Be clear about what you want your mentor to do - this is most often achieved by having a ‘mentor role description’, which will hopefully answer all key questions relating to style, skills, knowledge, confidentiality, boundaries and frequency of meetings and so on.
A ‘mentor role description’ can help individuals decide whether or not mentoring is for them; some organisations to run sessions for prospective mentors to outline the role, the scheme and answer any questions; to help individuals decide.
Some organisations formally select mentors using the mentor role description criteria for skills and knowledge; others use self-nomination (if this is the case more detailed training needs to be put into place).
If a more formal selection approach is adopted you need to ensure that those individuals who were unsuccessful are given honest feedback and where applicable support to develop for future mentoring opportunities.
Mentee Selection
Be clear about what the mentee will get out of the relationship and – creating a ‘mentee role description’ can be useful to support this.
A mentee role description can help individuals decide if mentoring is the right approach to their professional development for them, as opposed to coaching, attending a workshop, formal qualifications or in some instances more formal counselling.
To support this some organisations run sessions for prospective mentees to outline the aims, the scheme and answer any questions.
Mentoring is often aligned to a particular development programme so the ‘cohort’ has already been established, which is often the case for traineeships or leadership development programmes.
Where mentoring is a professional development intervention in its own right you will need to think about how to select mentees, such as self-nomination, line-manager nomination or through a development centre
Where the demand for mentoring outweighs the supply of mentors you need to ensure that those individuals who are unable to participate are given honest feedback and are sign-posted to more relevant professional development opportunities.
Training
It is common for mentoring schemes to offer support and training for mentors, such as de-briefing sessions, which can be helpful if they are faced with novel or complex issues.
This practice is sometimes referred to as ‘supervision-lite’ – a term appropriated from counselling and psychotherapy that places a requirement on counsellors to get some support from others to help them deal/process some of the material or issues that are presented during their sessions.
Support and training can be delivered in one-to-one sessions, a small group exchange or an annual refresher.
Induction
An induction process ensures mentees understand their role; it is also an opportunity for some skills development. For example mentoring works best when individuals are able to reflect on their professional practice. Reflection does not always come naturally so it is important to help them to develop their reflective abilities during induction.
Offering a joint induction to both mentors and mentees can support relationship building. It may also be useful for the mentee’s line manager to be present.
The induction can be used to highlight key documents, including role descriptions and the mentoring agreement.
Both the mentor and the mentee need to understand the process of ‘contracting’ with each other and should discuss roles, the agreement and expectations on both sides.
Evaluation
The mentoring relationship may have been given a defined time period or number of mentoring meetings; where this is not the case it might be helpful to work towards a particular outcome or milestone.
It is important for both the mentee and mentor to reflect on what they have gained from the relationship, effective mentoring develops both parties,and so this should be part of the ‘ending’ of the relationship.
There are a number of factors museums have to consider when setting up a mentoring scheme. For instance they have to decide whether to use internal or external mentors; what to include in a mentoring agreement; the role of line manager; how to select mentors and mentees to ensure they have mutual understanding.
Operation
Be clear about whether it is a mentoring scheme you need. It is common for mentoring and coaching to be confused but they are different. Do you want a mentor to share their expertise and experience? Or do you want a coach to ask questions to help the individual come to their own solutions and develop specific skills?
If it is mentoring you need to ensure you have a clear process for selecting mentors and mentees, providing relevant training, carrying out an induction, on-going training and support; and how you will evaluating success.
Key steps to take when developing a mentoring scheme include:
- Refer to current best-practice in the field of mentoring and identify mentoring leaders, people, organisations and sector institutions
- Decide what the mentoring agreement needs to include
- Use role descriptions to clarify the process for mentors and mentee
- Decide how mentors and mentees should be matched
- Establish length and location sessions, whether they take place during work time and are delivered face-to-face, online, over the phone, or a mixture of all three
- Determine escalation points if the relationship falters or the mentoring agreement is challenged
- Clarify what role the line manager will play during the mentoring process
- Explore whether it is feasible to provide expenses for travel and refreshments
- Consider the data protection implications of storing digital and paper records; and be clear about who has access.
Mentor selection
Be clear about what you want your mentor to do - this is most often achieved by having a ‘mentor role description’, which will hopefully answer all key questions relating to style, skills, knowledge, confidentiality, boundaries and frequency of meetings and so on.
A ‘mentor role description’ can help individuals decide whether or not mentoring is for them; some organisations to run sessions for prospective mentors to outline the role, the scheme and answer any questions; to help individuals decide.
Some organisations formally select mentors using the mentor role description criteria for skills and knowledge; others use self-nomination (if this is the case more detailed training needs to be put into place).
If a more formal selection approach is adopted you need to ensure that those individuals who were unsuccessful are given honest feedback and where applicable support to develop for future mentoring opportunities.
Mentee Selection
Be clear about what the mentee will get out of the relationship and – creating a ‘mentee role description’ can be useful to support this.
A mentee role description can help individuals decide if mentoring is the right approach to their professional development for them, as opposed to coaching, attending a workshop, formal qualifications or in some instances more formal counselling.
To support this some organisations run sessions for prospective mentees to outline the aims, the scheme and answer any questions.
Mentoring is often aligned to a particular development programme so the ‘cohort’ has already been established, which is often the case for traineeships or leadership development programmes.
Where mentoring is a professional development intervention in its own right you will need to think about how to select mentees, such as self-nomination, line-manager nomination or through a development centre
Where the demand for mentoring outweighs the supply of mentors you need to ensure that those individuals who are unable to participate are given honest feedback and are sign-posted to more relevant professional development opportunities.
Training
It is common for mentoring schemes to offer support and training for mentors, such as de-briefing sessions, which can be helpful if they are faced with novel or complex issues.
This practice is sometimes referred to as ‘supervision-lite’ – a term appropriated from counselling and psychotherapy that places a requirement on counsellors to get some support from others to help them deal/process some of the material or issues that are presented during their sessions.
Support and training can be delivered in one-to-one sessions, a small group exchange or an annual refresher.
Induction
An induction process ensures mentees understand their role; it is also an opportunity for some skills development. For example mentoring works best when individuals are able to reflect on their professional practice. Reflection does not always come naturally so it is important to help them to develop their reflective abilities during induction.
Offering a joint induction to both mentors and mentees can support relationship building. It may also be useful for the mentee’s line manager to be present.
The induction can be used to highlight key documents, including role descriptions and the mentoring agreement.
Both the mentor and the mentee need to understand the process of ‘contracting’ with each other and should discuss roles, the agreement and expectations on both sides.
Evaluation
The mentoring relationship may have been given a defined time period or number of mentoring meetings; where this is not the case it might be helpful to work towards a particular outcome or milestone.
It is important for both the mentee and mentor to reflect on what they have gained from the relationship, effective mentoring develops both parties,and so this should be part of the ‘ending’ of the relationship.