Mentoring
Teaching Development | Wāhanga Whakapakari Ako
Dorothy Spiller
Teaching Development | Wāhanga Whakapakari Ako
February 2011
Mentoring: An Introduction
Definition and core principles
The word „mentor‟ has become widely used in
organisations and in a range of professional
contexts. The term is often used synonymously
with the related concepts of coaching and
supervision, but while the mentoring relationship
may involve elements of both of these activities,
the role of mentor is generally broader and less
specific than either of these terms suggest.
Traditionally, mentoring has been seen as a
supportive relationship between an experienced
person (the mentor) and a less experienced
protégé. This conception of the relationship is
problematic because of the possible assumptions
about the inequalities in the association, the
implicit suggestions about who directs the
association and the way in which it may be
interpreted as a process of information
transmission. The philosophy which underpins
our mentoring programme at the University of
Waikato draws on the principles of adult learning
and collaborative inquiry. While it is important
that the partners in the mentoring relationship
determine a way of working together that is
appropriate for each of them, there are some
broad principles that you may like to bear in mind
as you negotiate your relationship:
 The direction of the conversation should be
shaped in response to the expressed needs of
the person being mentored.
 The mentor needs to provide a safe and
hospitable environment for learning
conversations.
 Trust and confidentiality are paramount to the
mentoring relationship.
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 The mentor is not an authoritative transmitter
A sample of
mentor definitions
Scholar
of knowledge but a facilitator who can help
the person being mentored to attain identified
outcomes, articulate their concerns, reflect on
practice, manage their working life and chart
new directions.
 It is possible to work with a mentor with some
particular goals and then select another mentor
for different purposes.
 The relationship should incorporate a process
of review and evaluation (“How are we
doing? / Can we do this better?”).
Definition of a mentor
Phillips-Jones (1982) Mentors are influential people who significantly help you reach your major
life goals.
Kram (1985)
A mentor is an experienced, productive manager who relates well to a less
experienced employee and facilitates his or her development for the benefit
of the individual as well as that of the organisation.
Ragins (1989)
Mentors are higher ranking, influential, senior organisational members with
advanced experience and knowledge who are committed to providing
upward mobility and support to a protégé’s professional career.
Reece and Brandt
(1993)
Mentors are people who have been where you want to go in your career and
who are willing to act as your guide and friend.
Garrick and
Alexander (1994)
A mentor is now defined as a person who takes on, or is given responsibility
for another’s learning and general development.
Beardwell and
Holden (1994)
Mentors are more experienced employees (and often managers) who guide,
encourage and support younger or less experienced employees or protégés.
Smith (1998)
A mentor is an older, more experienced person in the organisation who takes
on a younger member of the organisation as a protégé , and through the
relationship developed, helps the protégé to advance his or her career.
Lacey (1999)
A mentor is a trusted and significant leader who works with a partner (a
mentee) to help them learn things more quickly or earlier, or to learn things
they otherwise might not have learnt.
Walton (1999)
A mentor is an experienced and often senior employee who supports and
advises less experienced and often younger colleagues through their
personal and career development
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Mathews (2003), p. 314.
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A sample of mentoring definitions
Scholar
Definition of mentoring
Carmin (1988)
Mentoring is a complex, interactive process occurring between individuals of
differing levels of experience and expertise which incorporates interpersonal
or psychological development, career and/or educational development, and
socialization functions into the relationship.
Garrick and
Alexander (1994)
Mentoring involves carefully planned activities to encourage mentees to
analyse and reflect on their work performance, and to review the proposed
next step in their personal career management programme.
Beardwell and
Holden (1994)
Mentoring facilitates the learning to learn of their employees, contributes to
the process of meaning making in the organisation and hence to its
responsiveness to its environment, while meeting the developmental needs
of employees.
Smith (1998)
Mentoring involves teaching protégés how to advance in the organization,
promoting their careers by advocating their ability and gaining them
exposure and visibility, and serving as a counsellor.
Lacey (1999)
Mentoring is a partnership between a more experienced person and
someone new to a role or the organisation, it involves teaching, counselling,
providing psychological support and motivation.
Applebaum (2000)
Mentoring is the process of empowering individuals by helping them
capitalise on their personal and professional strengths, giving them the
support and guidance to challenge themselves and take risks, and helping
them to find an appropriate and rewarding career path.
Mathews (2003), p.317.
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Why Mentoring?
A mentoring association can have a number of
potential benefits for those people being
mentored and for mentors.
Potential benefits for those being mentored
include:
 An opportunity to articulate questions and
concerns in a safe and conducive environment
(for example, around teaching, research,
university expectations and career progress)
 An opportunity to benefit from the experience
of an organisational veteran
 A place to learn how things are done in the
University environment
 Personal support, discussion and suggestions
in relation to a project or initiative
 A person who can help to prioritise workload
and schedule deadlines
 An opportunity to sound out or rehearse ideas
 A place to develop confidence and improve
one‟s wellbeing in the workplace
Potential benefits for mentors include:
 Networking with someone from another area
 A chance to discuss and refine one‟s own
thinking
 Professional friendship
 Enhanced facilitation skills
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Guidelines for practice
1. Setting up the relationship
Much of the success of mentoring will depend on
the strength of the personal interaction. Before
any planning between the parties, there should be
an initial opportunity for both parties to talk a
little bit about themselves and their hopes for the
association.
The next step is for the mentoring partners to
have a conversation about how they want to
conduct the relationship within the broad
framework of the core principles set out in this
document. Some of the issues that will impinge
on the way people agree to work together include:
 The timetables, time constraints and
availability of both parties
 The focus for conversations identified by the
person being mentored
 The personalities and working styles of both
parties
For future success it is important to clarify mutual
expectations of matters such as:
 The focus of the association
 The regularity and duration of meetings
 Venue for meetings
 Ways of contacting each other
 The boundaries of the relationship
 Ways of managing difficulties or
misunderstandings
 Potentially sensitive areas or differences
 A commitment to confidentiality
 A process for reviewing progress
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Levels of Ongoing Accountability
The relationship
How are we doing?
What is the quality of our interaction?
In what ways might we strengthen our relationship?
The learning process
Is the process we are using working to facilitate your learning?
In what ways are your learning needs being met? Not met?
What might we do to make the process work better for you?
What do we need to change or strengthen?
What are you learning about yourself as a learner in this
process?
Progress towards
learning goals
What progress are you making toward realizing your learning
goals?
What is your greatest success thus far?
What is your biggest frustration?
What gives you the most satisfaction about what you are
learning?
Zachary, L. (2000) The Mentor’s Guide, p.102
Preparing
Closing
Negotiating
Enabling
You may choose to
document some of these
agreements, but this will
depend on the way you
decide to organise the
relationship. Zachary,
(2000) terms this stage
“negotiating”, a crucial
mutual understanding that
needs to occur before the
mentoring association can
effectively get underway.
Zachary, L. (2000) The Mentor’s Guide p.51
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2. Facilitating the relationship
While this programme allows for individual
mentoring styles, there are a number of core
attributes that a mentor needs. These include:
 The ability to create a hospitable environment
 Sensitivity to the affective dimension of the
association
 Responsiveness to the needs of the person who
is being mentored
 Good listening skills
 A capacity to use a range of question types
(inquiry, clarification, prompt, hypothetical,
challenging, synthesising, linking, etc)
 A readiness to share ideas and practice when
appropriate
 Discretion and confidentiality
 The ability to help with planning, goal setting,
prioritising and time management
 The capacity to encourage reflection and
evaluation
 The provision of feedback that is carefully
linked to desired outcomes and provides scope
and direction for subsequent development
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Tips for Mentors in Providing Feedback
What to do
How to do it
Example
Align your feedback with the
mentee’s agenda.
Provide real-time feedback.
“I have a few ideas that might
Make it usable and realistic. Offer help…”
concrete and practical steps and
options.
“What works for me is…”
Provide feedback about
behaviour that the mentee can
do something about.
Stay with the mentee’s behaviour “Tell me about the impact of the
rather than succumb to the
behaviour…”
temptation to evaluate it.
“How might someone else see
that behaviour?”
When you talk from your
perspective, remember that
your reality is not your
mentee’s reality.
When you talk about you own
experience, set a context and be
descriptive so that the mentee
can see the parallels.
“In my experience, which was…, I
found that… I know that is not
your situation, but maybe there is
something to learn here.”
Check out your understanding
of what is being said.
Listen actively.
“If I understand what you are
saying…”
Clarify and summarise.
“Help me to understand what
you mean by…”
Use a tone of respect.
Take care not to undermine the
mentee’s self-esteem.
“I liked the way you…”
“I am curious…”
“I wonder…”
“Have you ever considered…?”
Be aware of your
communication style and how
that works with that of your
mentee.
Share information about
communication styles with your
mentee, and discuss the
implications for the feedback
cycle.
“ I find that I get defensive
when…”
“I react positively to…”
Avoid giving feedback when
Ask for time to get the
you lack adequate information. information you need. Faking it
doesn’t work.
“To be honest with you, I need to
think about that a little more.”
Encourage the mentee to
Continuously link progress and
experience feedback as
learning to the big picture and
movement forward rather than the journey.
interruption from the journey.
“When we started out… and
then… and now…”
Zachary, L. (2000) The Mentor’s Guide, p.135
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Stanfield (2000) provides a template for focussed
conversation which may be a helpful framework
to bear in mind when facilitating a mentoring
meeting. Stanfield (2000) suggests that there are
four basic levels in a focussed conversation. They
are:
 The objective level-questions about facts and
external realities
Example: What aspects of your research
proposal would you like to discuss today?
 The reflective level-questions to elicit an
immediate personal response to the external/
factual situation
Example: Are there any aspects of the
proposal that you are finding challenging?
 The interpretive level-questions to draw out
significance, meaning and implications
Example: Do these challenges suggest some
inherent problems with the proposal or can
you see possible ways of responding to them?
 The decisional level – questions to prompt
resolution and plan for future action?
Example: Do you think that you may want to
reconsider the scope of your research
proposal?
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Case studies for mentors
It is your third meeting with the person you are
mentoring. You are a senior female academic and
she is a junior academic in a different discipline in
the same faculty. In your first meeting she
indicated that her initial interest was to get a better
understanding of processes and systems in the
university and she then wanted to talk through the
writing of a research grant application. You have
enjoyed your meetings with her and have fitted in a
relaxed cup of coffee at the end of each meeting.
You feel a natural affinity with her and
communication seems easy. However, on this
occasion she unexpectedly launches into a bitter
attack on her departmental head who she says has
treated her unfairly and asks you to intervene on
her behalf.
How would you manage this situation?
You are an experienced (male) academic with a
prolific research output. You are mentoring a
female academic in your discipline who is preparing
her first article for publication. She asks you if you
would mind looking at a draft of her article and
giving her some feedback before she submits it for
publication. You find the draft article interesting
but it is written in a style which you consider is too
informal and slightly anecdotal.
What feedback will you give her?
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You are a senior female academic and you have
been teaching in the university for 20 years. A
relatively inexperienced female academic in your
faculty (but in a very different discipline) has asked
you to help her with her time management. She is
very enthusiastic about her teaching and when you
look at her work patterns with her, you think that
she is spending too much time on her teaching. You
tell her this and she reacts angrily saying that you
are minimising the importance of teaching and that
this is inappropriate. Reflecting on the meeting,
you speculate that there may have been a better
way to manage the situation.
If you could retrace your steps how might you
handle things differently?
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Case studies for people being
mentored
You have been teaching at university for 5 years.
You enjoy your work, but are very conscious that
you are not publishing and this makes you worried
about the future. As a woman with three young
children under 6, you find that the most you can
manage is to keep up with new reading in your field
and meet your teaching and administrative
requirements. You decided to ask for a mentor who
can help you get started with publishing. You are
delighted when you are given a mentor who is a
senior academic in a field that is related to yours.
You have met her socially and know that she has a
family even though her children are now grown up.
You are confident that she will understand your
challenges. In the first meeting over coffee you
establish that you want to focus on research and
tell her a bit about your difficulties. She seems
quite proactive and together you draw up a
timetable of meetings with a goal to help you get
an article to submission stage. However, events are
somewhat unkind to you and you have a series of
family-related disasters to deal with including all
three children getting mumps. You have to
postpone two meetings. After the second
postponement you get a terse email from your
mentor in which she implies that it may not be
possible to continue the relationship.
What should you do?
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You are a new female academic who has been
advised that it is important to get research
published as soon as possible. You are assigned a
mentor from your discipline with an international
reputation as a scholar and an extensive list of
publications. You are very excited about this
arrangement as you have always admired his work
and his ideas have been influential in shaping your
own thinking. You feel as if you have an
opportunity to sit at the feet of the master. At your
initial meeting, you don’t really draw up a specific
agenda, but you indicate that you want to publish
research as soon as possible and you are looking
forward to learning from him. You both agree that
you will meet for coffee once a month and begin by
formulating a research plan. You don’t discuss any
other specifics of the relationship as you both feel
confident that you can manage things as they go
along. After three months, you are starting to
worry because:
 You have managed one further meeting and he
is always changing times or sending you
messages that he can’t make the scheduled
meeting.
 At the meeting you had, he talked for most of
the time about his own research.
 You still have no ideas about a possible research
plan.
What can you do to try and make the arrangement
work more effectively for you?
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You are a male academic in the Sciences who has
been teaching for seven years. In your application
you indicated that you wanted a mentor to help
you develop as a teacher. In particular, you feel
that while students give you good evaluations and
get good marks, your teaching is boring for you and
them. You have been assigned a mentor in a
related discipline who is a senior academic who is
well known for his successes as a teacher and has
won teaching awards. At your first meeting, you
explain your needs and indicate that you are
looking for inspiration. The mentor invites you to
observe his classes and then your observations will
be the basis for further discussions and
professional development. This process is really
working well for you, especially as in the debriefing
conversations, your mentor asks you to reflect on
way in which his teaching approaches will or won’t
suit your personality and context. Your mentor
also directs you to start reading some of the
scholarship on teaching in higher education to
inform your teacher thinking and choices.
However, at this point you have a PGS meeting
with your COD. You explain how you are working
with your mentor and your COD is unhappy. He
indicates that he doesn’t like the teaching style of
your mentor as he believes he just wants to court
popularity and that he would be very unhappy to
see signs that you are trying to emulate him.
Moreover, your COD believes that you are putting
too much time and energy into teaching at the
expense of research.
What should you do?
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References
Matthews, P. (2003). Academic mentoring.
Enhancing the use of scarce resources.
Educational Management & Administration,
31 (3), 313-334.
Stanfield, R.B. (2000). The Art of focussed
conversation. New Society Publishers: Canada
Zachary, L. (2000). The Mentor’s guide. San
Francisco: Jossey Bass.
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