We are keen to set up a Mentoring programme for senior managers in our Housing Association. We are going through a period of ongoing organisational change and see mentoring as an opportunity to support this and develop our managers. Anybody gone through similar and can let me know issues they faced or elements I need to be aware of?
Andrew Hipkiss
7 Responses
Mentoring programmes
Hi Andrew
I set upa mentoring programme some time ago for a company in a state of massive change and it did have some significant issues to overcome. I’d be happy to share with you, especially as I now work for the company concerned! If you want a chat please give me a call on 07966 381628
mentoring
We have been assisting a government agency in a large scale mentoring programme and also trained other organisations in this area.
We are currently redesigning our web site to include some of the case studies and ‘best practice’ tips we have gleaned as a result. As usual most IT projects run over time so we are looking at web site info in December.
However if you want to chat the experience through I would be happy to. I am in the office next week all day Tuesday and Friday so please feel free to phone for a chat.
Susan McGaughran
Tbdglobal Ltd
0870 241 3998
http://www.tbdglobal.com
mentoring
I think the hardest thing when I was involved and in this was binding and keeping willing mentors. There was an awful lot of people on the programme who had no mentors and they were vry disheartening to as were the people whose mentors kept saying they were too busy so I think just to be careful quite disciplined in your use of mentors and not let them go and check on them-it sounds a little hard but the people on the course arereally hindered by bad mentors. And make it very easy for the mentors to be a mentor and not very time consuming
mentoring
Hi Andrew,
Some tips from experience ..
1. To get the scheme off the ground and keep it there you need champions who are also prepared to be mentors.
2. Be prepared to run some sessions about what mentoring is and is not.
3. Find out what your mentees want so that you can broker the right mentor for them. Mentoring is a powerful way of learning and can reach the parts other learning does not – so keep an open mind and be creative.
4. Review progress to make sure the mentoring is on track.
5. Spread the news about what is working.
6. Initially you will probably have to put quite a bit of your own time into this so do not try to take it on when you are especially busy.
Angela O’Connell
Healthy Start to Mentoring
Hello, Andrew –
I have been both a mentor (in established and new set-ups) as well as making sure others know how to get the basics right. It’s often a case of starting with a list of “do’s” and “do nots” – which can point the way clearly. If you’d like a chat, be pleased to tell you what worked for me (from both sides!) Telephone: 01423 870987
Mentoring – get ownership
I’ve set up a couple of mentoring programmes and agree with many of the points above. One thing I’ve learned is the importance of designing the right sort of programme – mentoring (or coach-mentoring, a term I prefer) means so many different things in different contexts… to maximise buy-in, I’ve found it’s worth investing time in bringing stakeholders (ie potential mentors and mentees)together to work out what sort of beast it should be. It means that they get to air uncertainties, explore options and devise strategies together – ie they experience the mentoring process in action! Start the learning from Day 1!
I’m happy to discuss if you want to contact me.
Community
Hi Andrew – from my personal experience I would have to say that a good community feeling (or culture) is the key to any system of mentorship. If the willingness is there then an enabled process can be relatively simple and show real and tangible results.