Making the most of your mentoring session
Featured in the Proactive Interviewee Skills training manual
By Beverley Williams
Category: Recruitment, Selection and Induction
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
The mentor/mentee relationship calls for a great deal of commitment on both sides. The actual time given by the mentor, who is normally a senior person within the organisation, is a precious commodity and needs to be used wisely. Mentees are likely to worry about the issues they need to discuss at the actual meeting. The standard preparation/meeting agenda will normally cover the time allotted and works extremely well when all is pretty much on track. However, if there is a burning issue to be addressed, it is extremely important that the mentor is informed of its priority, thus allowing the meeting to focus primarily on that issue, giving less time to standard agenda items. This training activity helps participants to decide on priority issues, particularly in circumstances where a great many points could validly be covered. The focus on effective use of time during the actual mentoring sessions, plus the resulting higher performances that are consistently demonstrated by mentees, provide valuable benefits for the organisation as a whole.
You open the training activity by emphasising the value of the actual time spent with the mentor and the importance of careful prioritisation of the topics to be discussed. You ask the participants to identify whether a series of brief examples should be treated as top priority. The participants then work in groups of three or four to decide on the priority ranking of a number of issues, all of which could reasonably be discussed with the mentor. They also generate ideas on tackling those issues identified as top priority. You take feedback, exploring their reasons for their choices. You take one or two key learning points from each person before distributing and commenting on a key learning points handout where appropriate.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to help participants focus on selecting the issues that need priority time with the mentor.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 10 |
| Typical Duration: | 01:25:00 |
| No of Pages: | 15 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers with participants who are currently, or will be, receiving formal mentoring. Ideally, this training activity would take place after mentees have been introduced to their mentors but before formal mentoring sessions have begun. However, the training activity can usefully be run even if mentoring is already underway. It is an excellent idea to run you mentors through this training activity to keep them fully up to date with the messages the mentees will be receiving. Participants will ideally have already covered the activity, ‘Preparing for you mentoring session’.
Download the training activity, Making the most of your mentoring session as featured in the Fenman training manual; Proactive Interviewee Skills