Mentoring is described as the set of activities carried out by one person (the mentor) for another person (the mentee), in order to help the latter to do a more effective job and / or progress in his career.
The mentor most likely previously held the same role as the mentee.
Mentoring is a training method that is based on a one-to-one relationship (formal or informal) between a person with more experience (senior, mentor) and one with less experience (junior, mentee), i.e. a student, in order to make the latter develop skills in the workplace and social. It is a continuous relationship of learning, dialogue, and challenge.
Mentoring is developed through the construction of a medium-long term relationship, as a learning and development path, in which the Mentor (as guide, support, facilitator of change) makes knowledge, skills and experience available to encourage the personal and professional growth of the Mentee.
For the mentoring process to work, there must be an explicit effort to shape and mold an individual.
The Mentor he is a person who has developed experiences and acquired skills, trained his ability to be. The mentor does not cure a patient, does not promise job opportunities, but offers his example, his defeats and his successes, With his own testimony, he can stimulate in the mind and confidence, patience, awareness, acceptance of one’s limits, desire to consult, courage, enthusiasm, resilience.
The Mentee is an adult person who feels the need to confront himself, to have advice, suggestions, support.
Seeks listening, understanding and orientation and can establish an important, equal exchange with the Mentor. Because asking for help, after all, means trusting and entrusting oneself, and therefore recognizing value in another person.
This can be formal or informal. Informal: when a more experienced person, not necessarily a manager or a person who holds a top position in the company organization, acts as a “sponsor” to a new employee, educating him on the corporate culture. Formal: they only concern high potentials, the opportunity is offered to develop a direct mentoring relationship with a senior executive.
The program aims to train new managers / leaders and to develop top performers.
The goals of a mentoring program
- Ensuring the transfer of knowledge
• Sharing and proposing experiences
• Generational exchange
• Transfer of values
• Development of social skills
• Prospects for young people to prove themselves
• Emotional support and protection
• Promotion of the feeling of belonging
• Personality development of the mentee
• Development of opportunities
Mentoring is a very important method for making several generations collaborate with each other to develop a collaborative relationship, where each person has something to teach, thus creating an equal relationship.
The Mentor can be used for various purposes that you want to achieve in the company, for example: to remove forms of prejudice, stereotypes, and to develop a collaborative climate
BUILD A RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST
You need to create a stable and fruitful relationship with your mentee because you will likely have to spend a lot of time in close contact.
At this stage it is therefore essential that you share your experiences, your curriculum, your goals, explaining the difficulties you have had to face and how you managed to overcome them.
Only by giving the mentee the impression of being an important figure for his future will you gain respect and authority, while at the same time establishing an embryonic bond of trust.
When can a mentoring process be useful?
In all situations in which a person is placed in a new context: new hires who can be supported in the process of Organizational integration; people who hold a managerial role for the first time; expatriates with the need to Understand culture and adapt to changes; in situations where the transmission of non-coded skills is necessary and The learning process is to be facilitated.
At the end of each Mentoring process it is important to always give Feedback on what has been done and on what needs to be improved in order to develop certain goals.