The Whys and Whens of Modern Mentoring

Content

In this session Dr Judie Gannon will draw on a range of research evidence and sources as well as practical experience on why mentoring matters, to mentors, mentees, organisations and more broadly professional communities and society.  

After attending this session participants will be able to: 

• Understand the nature of mentoring and what forms it can take,
• Appreciate how mentoring and coaching coincide (and potently clash), and what this means for mentoring and coaching skills development,
• Identify when to mentor and when other supportive relationships are needed, 
• Articulate the importance of valuing mentoring, and how to improve personal and professional mentoring practice 

In the session, Dr Gannon will:

• Define mentoring   
• Explore the latest developments in mentoring and the flexibility it offers professionals at different career stages
• Introduce alternatives to mentoring as a developmental and helping relationship
• Identify mentoring skills and their transferability across different aspects of our professional lives and personal worlds. 

There will be a short exercise on listening and how listening in mentoring and coaching differs from our everyday professional skills set.  This discussion will allow us to begin to differentiate between mentoring and coaching, and appreciate how both these forms of developmental relationships play a role in the modern workplace. There will be an opportunity for participants to assess their current mentoring skills and pinpoint where further development might be beneficial.  

In the second part of the session, we examine where mentoring has a specific impact and how to move beyond mentoring as a personal practice. We will identify some common errors mentors and mentees make and how to get relationships back on track when things go awry. The session will close with consideration of what it takes to develop and operate a mentoring initiative and the strengths and weaknesses of formalising informal mentoring support in professional areas. A checklist for participants to use when considering whether to engage in new mentoring relationships will also be shared. The final aspect of the session will involve an explanation of the importance of valuing mentoring based on evidence from the research on pro bono work amongst professionals and the management of expectations and obligations amongst professionals.      

Duration

1 hour (1 CPD Unit)

Speaker

Dr Judie Gannon

Judie is the Director of Doctoral programmes (including the Doctorate of Coaching and Mentoring) at Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, UK, and is a member of the International Centre for Coaching & Mentoring Studies. 

Her research and practice focus on mentoring and coaching as interventions for social change.

Judie is fascinated by the ways mentoring and coaching are used in organisations, and between different settings to bring about development for individuals, organisations, and communities. 

In 2019 Judie was recognised by the EMCC for her work in this area and won a Global Mentoring award.