Mentoring - a Journey of Leading Another towards His Goals - Essay Example

Mentoring: A Journey of Leading Another Towards His Goals Offering a hand to help out those in need is one noble act that is truly appreciated by most people. It is one humanitarian act that aims to connect lives together in pursuit of a common good. Reaching out to a novice to give light and direction towards his desired path to success entails joining him in his journey. Mentorship may be described as such. A mentor is someone revered by a mentee as a knowledgeable guide molded into wisdom by his vast experiences in a field desired by a mentee to be part of. He takes special interest in the mentee, or his protégé, as he takes her under his wing and guide her in decision-making, attitude, behavior and specific tasks related to the field he is mentoring her with. A mentoring relationship then develops over time, during which the mentee’s needs changes as well as the nature of the mentoring relationship. The mentor is aware of such changes and adjusts the kind of attention, advise, assistance and motivation he provides. Mutual respect, trust, understanding and empathy are values embodied by an effective mentoring relationship (http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/mentor/1.html). Good mentors are good listeners, good observers and good problem-solvers. Mentees feel comfortable opening up to them without fear of being chastised for being mistaken in their views. Mentors acknowledge, accept and respect those views and work together with the mentees in correcting what is wrong. This takes a lot of reflection in both mentor and mentee. Both mentor and mentee affects each other in terms of reputation. Since they influence each other, whatever personality or skills the other has will reflect on the other. Should a mentor be inefficient, he will pass this on to his mentee who may not know any better. Likewise, if a mentee continues to perform poorly in spite of the mentor’s great efforts to help him or her out, then such performance may be blamed on the mentor, for he is supposed to be the wiser one. Personally, I see a lot of things to value in a mentoring relationship. Those valued most are the process of reflection, establishing deep, harmonious relationships, learning and leadership. According to Osterman (1990), “reflection is the essential part of the learning process because it results in making sense of or extracting meaning from the experience”. People often go through their day doing their work as second nature, sometimes without thinking critically if what they are doing is truly meaningful and relevant. Schon (1983) offers the concept of knowing-in-practice to describe such mindless, functional task. An individual needs to reflect, as it can surface and criticize old, reliable ways of doing things. “Practitioners do reflect on their knowing-in-practice. But they may also reflect on practice while they are in the midst of it. Here they reflect-in action.” (p. 62) Smyth (1991) suggests a process for reflection that would be more effective if documented in journal writing. First is to describe one’s current practices – events, critical incidents or occurrences that cause one to question. This may uncover important insights. Next is to inform. Objectively revisit descriptions of events and develop an understanding of the context of what happened. The third step is to confront oneself by asking where his beliefs come from and why he believes them; what assumptions did he make; why does he adopt such views or practices and what influences him to think and behave the way he does. Lastly, one can reconstruct. If such events cause conflicts between one’s theories and what he would want to happen, he should ask himself questions such as: what he would want to happen; how would he change his practices; what new theory should he adopt; and if this new theory is consistent with the old one.: Reflective practice has both advantages and disadvantages. It can positively affect professional growth and development by leading to greater self-awareness, to the development of new knowledge about professional practice, and to a broader understanding of the problems that confront practitioners (Osterman 1990). However, it is a time-consuming process and it may involve personal risk because the questioning of practice requires that practitioners be open to an examination of beliefs, values, and feelings about which there may be great sensitivity (Peters 1991; Rose 1992). Reflecting in a mentoring relationship is especially beneficial because a mentee can have a sounding board of her reflections, and it comes back with valuable advise to boot! The beauty of mentoring is that it can occur spontaneously, out of the goodness of one’s heart. I have had the good fortune of having stumbled upon a well-respected professor who went out of her way to give me advise on certain concerns I had with some tasks related to my work. I admired her for spending time with me and with other students, even going out of her way to establish a good relationship with us, even for just a few minutes after our class. Her memory of details was impeccable, and I marveled at how she remembered specific issues I ranted about as she followed up on its development. I was touched at her initiative to ask me how I was coping with my problems at work. I would then see it as an opportunity to pour my heart out to her. I would not be disappointed in doing so because in the end, she would provide me with alternatives I can work with and the motivation to go on despite my struggles at work. I found that I was gaining strength from this wise and kind lady. I remember her words that teaching provided her with a livelihood aside from many blessings and a sense of fulfillment, “giving back” to teaching is a calling she chooses to answer. Since she has become a driving force in my career as a teacher, I follow suit. Whenever I see a new teacher struggling with a student who is misbehaving or stuck in the creation of her lesson plan, I offer to help without insisting my ideas. I try to maintain a mentoring relationship with her by checking up on her once in a while or welcoming her whenever she is in need of my advise. It has become as regular as once a month when we informally meet and discuss her progress. I did not actually see it then as a mentoring relationship, but upon reading about mentoring, I had then realized that it was a friendship based on mentorship. In the corporate world, mentoring is likewise given much value in helping workers who show a lot of potential. “Mentoring involves the pairing of younger potential managers (sometimes referred to as “high flyers” of “fast trackers”) with older, experienced and more senior managers who provide coaching, support, advise and visibility.” (Wirth, 2001, p.128) It goes without saying that mentoring relationships depend much on the individual’s sincere desire to acquire and develop new skills and gain additional competencies. There are times when pairings of mentors and mentees are assigned, and management decides this based on the compatibility of abilities and personalities. Learning in a mentoring relationship is not one-way. Both parties benefit from it - the mentee, for obvious reasons of imbibing wisdom from the mentor, and the mentor, for being updated on current trends that he needs to incorporate in his mentoring. A mentor, being looked up to as a professional, needs to be a step ahead of his mentee in terms of what he needs to teach. Thus, he himself must enrich his knowledge with research. The motivation to learn is affected by the reinforcements to learning namely intrinsic motivation or the inner drive to learn which leads to personal fulfillment; extrinsic motivation, which consists of rewards such as high grades or a prize for performing well; social reinforcement, an example of which is praise and approval from significant persons in an individuals life; and achievement, or the attaining of the learning goal. Having an interplay of the four kinds of reinforcement is the most effective way to motivate a learner to pursue more knowledge and acquire more skills (Stoll, L., Fink, D. & Earl, L., 2003). Hay (1995) differentiates learning that comes in three levels in a mentoring relationship. The first level is traditional learning, which is the usual coaching and teaching about how to do things properly. The next level is transitional learning which is about how things may be done differently. Learners make transitions that require them to be deeply aware of their goals and objectives and what to do in order to achieve them by trying out a different approach. In every step of the way, they need to reflect if they are on the right track. The deepest level of learning is transformational learning, which is about learning to learn. The mentee has already developed skills of deep awareness and analysis of his motives and actions, and the mentor collaborates with him in increasing his openness to learning. The process of learning is emphasized more than skills and techniques. Deep learning is something that more experienced learners become aware of. It entails “having a grasp of the structure of a discipline, seeing how things are related, using the ideas in novel situations and evaluating, even challenging the knowledge claims embedded in the discipline” (Stoll, L., Fink, D. & Earl, L., 2003). This is far different from rote learning most children are exposed to – memorizing facts, formulas, etc., which is more of surface learning that goes with an unreflective attitude. Deep learning comes out of sense-making activities, which are made up of conscious attention, organizing and reorganizing ideas, assimilating or accommodating to new ideas and constant reshuffling and reorganizing in efforts to connect ideas to coherent patterns. A mentor is also a leader, as he leads his mentees towards the right path. Leadership may be defined as a “process in which a leader attempts to influence his or her followers to establish and accomplish a goal or goals.” (from http://www.answers.com/leadership#top. Leadership is a continuous process wherein a leader tries to move from accomplishing one goal to another for the good of the whole group. A leader, such as a mentor, is stereotypically known to possess positive qualities and capabilities. However, in a research reported by French, Simpson and Harvey (2001), a good leader is also equipped with ‘negative capability’. “The underpinning image of leadership is based on knowing and is manifested through activity, work and achievement. There is, however, a quite other dimension of leadership, based on not knowing, on not doing, on being-done-to, and on being no longer in control of one’s own situation.” (French, Simpson & Harvey, 2001). This may be interpreted as being humble enough to admit when one doesn’t really know instead of putting up a façade of being all-knowing. This peculiarly human capacity to live with and tolerate ambiguity, of being content with half knowledge is quite a refreshing concept. “It implies the capacity to engage in a non-defensive way with change, without being overwhelmed by the ever-present pressure merely to react. It also indicates empathy and even a certain flexibility of character, the ability ‘to tolerate a loss of self and a loss of rationality by trusting in the capacity to recreate oneself in another character or another environment’ (Hutter, 1982). Good mentors are always open to learning something new, and not haughty enough to claim that they are already “made”. Being human and fallible is one trait that mentees share, and what better quality to relate to than that? Mentees will even feel important enough to share the burden of thinking up solutions to problems with their mentor. When the mentoring relationship goes well, great outcomes are produced not only for the mentee but for the organisation he or she works for. Whatever skills acquired from the mentoring is applied to the work setting, redounding to the benefit of the organisation. More efficiency is expected from the mentee, as he or she steps up the organisational ladder. The value of learning is enhanced and this may be transmitted to other members of the organisation. An atmosphere of collaborative learning may be introduced by the mentee, further benefitting the organization, as more members strive to do better in their craft. On the other hand, a competitive spirit may likewise be borne out of such drive for improvement. Less matured members may try to outshine mentees who are recipients of good mentoring or envy might creep in and try to pull them down. In any case, a successful mentee’s improvement of skills is noticeable. The effect on his or her co-workers and superiors is beyond his control. The mentoring should be strong enough for him or her to keep on improving and not allow others to pull him down. He should even be an inspiration to them to likewise seek improvement in their skills. To avoid intrigues in organizations among less experienced members, a good mentoring program should be available to all. That way, each member will be set on equal footing, and the organization reaps the benefits of the gained skills and efficiency of its workers. Good mentors must be chosen well by the organization. For schools, the best, most experienced, most efficient and most inspirational teachers should mentor the less experienced, younger teachers. Passing on their knowledge to the next generation of educators and being consistent in following up if they are the high standards they set is tantamount to sustaining a school’s success. An openness to learning and integrating new innovations should prevail in the school, so that both mentors and mentees may feel free to explore the possibilities that their potentials and abilities may bring them. Environments which promote performance is more after the product and results more than the process of learning while those that promote learning emphasizes the process of learning more. I believe schools should be more learning oriented, while workplaces should be more performance oriented, without neglecting support for continuous learning. This has something to do with building up a persons self-esteem. If a person grew up in environments that are conducive to successes, then that individual is more prone to try more tasks and in effect, develop more competencies. Having established a mentoring program, the school or organisation should set aside time for reflection and evaluation of the progress of the mentees. This would measure how far they have gone and how effective the mentors are. Should the evaluation yield poor results, administration should rethink if they have come up with the best matches or pairings. Good communication should also characterize successful mentoring programs. Openness to criticism and acknowledgement and respect for differing views and ideas should be embraced. If both parties feel free enough to communicate their innermost thoughts regarding the mentoring relationship, then conflicts are easily diffused, so barriers to success become limited. The development of the mentoring relationship often ends in a collegial relationship where mentors finally see their mentees as their equal. Like a parent sending off a child to try out his wings after giving him roots, it can be a bittersweet experience when the mentoring relationship terminates. Having achieved the goals initially set forth, and on their way to a successful career, the mentor feels proud of his protégé. Somehow, he has had a great part in the success the mentee is savoring. The mentee is grateful for all the help and support he or she has gotten from the mentor. However, since the professional bond that was painstakingly maintained over a period of time will now be severed, it can also be a source of anxiety and longing. A bad mentoring relationship may end up with the mentee competing with the mentor, with a desire to overshadow him. A good mentoring relationship will maintain the bond of friendship long after the professional bonds have been severed. For both the mentor and the mentee, the journey to life and learning continues….. References French, R., Simpson, P. & Harvey, C. (2001), ‘Negative capability’: the key to creative leadership. Presented at the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations 2001 Symposium. Retrieved on July 30, 2008 from www.sba.oakland.edu/ispso/html/2001Symposium/french.htm Hay, J. (1995). Learning and changing. Transformational mentoring: creating developmental alliances for changing organizational cultures. London: McGraw-Hill. [pp. 131–147]. Hutter, A.D. (1982) Poetry in psychoanalysis: Hopkins, Rosetti, Winnicott. International Review of Psycho-Analysis 9, 303-16. http://www.answers.com/leadership#top. http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/mentor/1.html Nunn, M. (2008) Mentoring for Early Career Professionals. Southern Cross University Osterman, K. F (1990) "Reflective Practice: A New Agenda for Education." EDUCATION AND URBAN SOCIETY 22, no. 2 (February 1990): 133- 152. Peters, J. (1991)"Strategies for Reflective Practice." In Professional Development For Educators Of Adults. New Directions For Adult And Continuing Education, no. 51, edited by R. Brockett. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Fall. 1991 Rose, A., (1992) "Framing Our Experience: Research Notes on Reflective Practice." Adult Learning 3, no. 4 (January 1992) Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books. Smyth, J. (1991). Teachers as collaborative learners. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press. Stoll, L., Fink, D. & Earl, L., (2003) It’s About Learning. Wirth, L. (2001) Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management, Geneva: International Labour Office Read More