Category Archives: Insights

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 […]

Mentoring Software: Program Coordinators

Mentoring Software that Program Coordinators Love On Building Experience into Technology It’s a little more than 20 years ago that I first organised a formal mentoring program.  I had already enjoyed a successful marketing career, and hoped to establish a mentoring program for women starting out in marketing as a way of giving back to […]

Fast Knowledge Transfer – FKT – is not Mentoring

Fast Knowledge Transfer – FKT – is not Mentoring In recent months, there has been a spate of articles and webinars extolling the virtues of “speed mentoring”, “flash mentoring” or similar means of fast knowledge transfer (FKT). We have also seen the rise of “Mentoring Lite” from major dot-com providers, providing rapid matching between people […]

What if the Coachee or Mentee Appears Delusional

What if the coachee or mentee appears delusional Although only one person in 500 is receiving treatment for a delusional disorder at any time, the rest of us are much more susceptible to bizarre and irrational beliefs than we like to admit. A recent study asking people about 17 delusional beliefs (for example: Do you […]

What is the conversation you need to have

What’s the conversation you need to have We all have conversations we avoid. We can wall these conversations off to the extent that we are not even aware we are avoiding them. In helping someone get to know themselves, a coach or mentor can encourage them to acknowledge and explore these conversations. Some of the […]

Mentoring is Not Just for “Top Talent”

Mentoring is Not Just for “Top Talent” Mentoring is increasingly recognised as a powerful tool for developing and retaining the leaders of tomorrow.  Very true and I applaud organisations for embracing mentoring and embedding it in their human resource management processes. I am less enthusiastic, however, when I see large organisations focus their mentoring programs […]

David Clutterbuck Interview: Best Practice

David Clutterbuck Interview for Radio National show Best Practice. During his last visit in Sydney, the world expert in mentoring Prof. David Clutterbuck lead a Mentoring Masterclass hosted by Art of Mentoring, attended many events industry related. He was also interviewed by Richard Aedy on his show Best Practice (Radio National – ABC Australia). In […]

The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

Having a good talk with myself Walking down the street 25 years ago, the sight of someone talking to themselves would probably make you want to cross the road to avoid them. Nowadays, it is nothing strange – we assume that they are on their mobile phone. But the idea that inner conversations should not […]

5 Tips on How to Coach and Mentor Perfectionists

5 Tips on How to Coach and Mentor Perfectionists Perfectionists are driven to succeed, strive to continually improve and work hard to avoid mistakes. Particularly when you have your own perfectionist tendencies (like me) it is easy to align perfectionism with diligence, excellence and well…perfection.  In fact, habitual perfectionism is in itself an imperfection. The […]

In Celebration of National Mentoring Day

National Mentoring Day Mentors are truly magnificent people who share their time, energy and experience with someone else. They guide and encourage, they challenge and confront, but most of all they support and listen. My first real mentor was an ex-boss. He gave me my first job as a graduate and watched out for me […]