MENTORS: How to Use Positive Psychology to Help Your Mentee to Thrive Over the last two decades a new branch of psychological study has taken academia, education and workplaces by storm. Known as “positive psychology”, it is basically the study of what makes life worth living. Rather than focusing on helping the sick to “get […]
Coaching and Mentoring as Conversations About Context
Coaching and Mentoring as Conversations About Context If coaches and mentors rarely, if ever, offer advice, what do they do? They offer context. Context is “relevant information, which the learner does not hold, but which may have a significant effect upon the quality of the decisions they take”. Context might include: Feedback the learner hasn’t […]
What Do Mentees Fear Most?
What do mentees fear most? A mentor enters a mentoring relationship knowing she has skills and knowledge to share with her mentee. Naturally this makes the mentor feel pretty good. Not only is she a decent and generous person, willing to share her expertise; she is also a person of value, having expertise worth sharing. […]
Separating Out Sponsorship and Mentoring
GUEST BLOG Various studies have demonstrated conclusively that sponsorship and mentoring are different, largely incompatible relationships [1]. Attempting to combine them leads to reduced impact in terms of both career and personal developmental outcomes for a number of reasons, including: Mentees are less open and authentic, because they want the sponsor-mentor to present them to […]
How Mentors Can Exercise, Use and Apply Emotional Intelligence
How mentors can exercise, use and apply emotional intelligence By Sonja Feil, Client Development Consultant & Sophie De Haan, Psychology Intern Thomas International The concept of Emotional Intelligence was devised by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, and popularised by the author Daniel Goleman in the early 1990s. The theory states that just as people […]
Getting value for money from your mentoring investment
Are you getting value for money on your investment in mentoring? You’d expect most companies with established mentoring programs to give an unequivocal yes, but the reality is that most organisations don’t know. So here are some basic indicators to consider. Highly effective mentoring programs: Deliver substantial learning for at least 95% of mentees and at least 80% […]
Use Mentoring to Claim The Tiara You Deserve
Use Mentoring to Claim The Tiara You Deserve! Guest blog by Lis Merrick, Managing Director, Coach Mentoring Ltd Tiara Syndrome is a term originally developed by Carol Frohlinger and Deborah Kolb and then used by Sheryl Sandberg in her book ‘Lean in’. Sandberg feels that women often think they can be crowned with the tiara […]
6 Top Tips For Mentoring Women
6 Top Tips For Mentoring Women These tips are for men who mentor women, but many apply for woman-to-woman mentoring as well. 1. Code of conduct For any cross-gender mentoring partnership, let it be known you are in a formal mentoring relationship, preferably as part of a structured program with a clear code of […]
Discovering the Science of a Mentoring Program
Discovering the Science of a Mentoring Program By Toni Brearley, Chief Executive Officer of The Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE) For the uninitiated, mentoring looks like an opportunity for a junior employee to have coffee and a chat with someone more senior. One hopes that some of the senior person’s wisdom and experience will […]
What Technology Do I Need to Run an Effective Mentoring Program?
What Technology Do I Need to Run an Effective Mentoring Program? The Oxford Dictionary defines technology as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.” The key word in that sentence is “practical”. With mentoring programs, as with everything in business, technology can add tremendous value, but there is no value in technology for technology’s […]