Mentor is a character in Homer's Odysee. He is the wise advisor, counsellor and supporter, who looked after Telemach, the son of Odysseus whilst he was away. Today, mentoring stands for a relationship between individuals, who work together in role learning and knowledge transfer. Many examples of mentoring relationships in different cultures do exist, for example the Guru in India, the Master in China, the Village Elder in Africa or the Tribal Elder in North America.
If in relation to sports people, politicians, actors or other performers within organizations, everywhere you hear the word mentoring - which is currently experiencing a renaissance. Reflect is working with the five-phases-model according to Clutterbuck (1985), to support organizations in the following themes: Leadership Development, On-boarding, Diversity Management, Knowledge Transfer as well as Career and Competence Development.
The phases include:
- Laying foundations and budgeting (defining the strategic direction)
- - Designing and planning (setting structures, defining roles/responsibilities, marketing, recruitment of participants)
- - Launching (expectation management, training and education of participants, matching and administration)
- - Supporting participants (pro- and reactive support, delivering resources, interventions and trainings)
- - Reviewing and improving (outcome evaluation, documentation, analyses, improvements and grooving the programme).
The advantages for the mentee are clear: He earns profit from the experience and the network of his mentor, who supports him as an advisor and gives him feedback. But also the mentor gets an invaluable benefit through his effort within a mentoring programme. His competencies in Leadership and Consulting advance and he wins a direct insight in the challenges of his mentee. And not at least the organization earns profit as well, as hight potentials get an early support and get committed. Valuable knowledge and experience get transferred directly to the mentee and innovative ideas get exchanged.
We can accredit programmes via the European Quality Award (EQA) and can offer IT-based dialog platforms with our cooperation partners. A good planned and implemented programme is an enormous enrichment for all participants to get informed about the expectations and requirements of all sides. Organizations, entities, departments and teams can drive dynamics and potential can get promoted and unfolded. Would such a programme be suitable for your organization?