BNET Business Dictionary
Business Definition for: Mentoring
- a form of employee development whereby a trusted and respected personâ€"the mentorâ€"uses their experience to offer guidance, encouragement, career advice, and support to another personâ€"the mentee. The aim of mentoring is to facilitate the mentee's learning and development and to enable them to discover more about their potential. Mentoring can occur informally or it can be arranged by means of an organizational program.
Mentor/mentee relationships can take any form that suits the individuals involved, but in practice there are a few rules that apply to most such arrangementsâ€"the most important of which is that anything discussed remains confidential. The relationship also needs to be based on trust and candid communication. A mentor does not have to belong to the same organization as the mentee, but can come from any sphere of the mentee's lifeâ€"professional association, a community center, your alumni organization, for exampleâ€"just as long as he or she is not the mentee's direct supervisor or working in the same department. Mentoring does not have to be paid for; in fact it is usually seen as an honor by the mentor. Many accomplished individuals consider it good professional citizenship to participate in the process of helping those coming up after them. It can also frequently be beneficial to volunteer to be a mentor, as many organizations consider mentoring a valuable hallmark of leadership material.
Additional Resources
- Mentoring Employees for Business Results
- Mentoring is crucial to developing and retaining employees. Mentors give advice on a spectrum of topics, ranging from specific skills to broader issues of career direction. Protégés gain sound guidance, access to established networks, and enhanced personal and professional perspectives.Though mentoring happens naturally to some degree, it can be promoted...
- Articles 2007-05-29
- Mentoring Others
- Mentoring is generally considered to be an activity undertaken by someone "older and wiser" in the same industry who acts as a role model, sponsor, guide, and adviser. Coaching, on the other hand, can be undertaken by someone who is not necessarily in the same industry but who can ask...
- Articles 2007-10-31
- Mentoring New Principals: Good Intentions, Realistic Expectations And Outcomes
- The concept of mentoring as a means of learning and growing in a new professional context has been extensively researched and implemented in the last decade. In the teaching profession most emphasis has been on the mentoring of pre-service and beginning teachers. Participating principals provided feedback to evaluate the program...
- White papers 2005-02-08
- Mentoring And Developmental Networks In The New Career Context
- This paper reviews the evolution of mentoring in the Careers field. As an important vehicle for personal learning and career advancement, mentoring continues to warrant scrutiny, particularly in light of changes in the career context. Research related to key topics is overviewed, such as relationship functions and phases, types of...
- White papers 2005-06-03
- Mix in Some Mentoring Magic
- Mentoring done right gives companies a powerful tool for developing employees, something most companies don't do much of anymore. BNET's How to Start a Mentorship Program offers a good jumping-off point. It sugarcoats in a few places -- for instance, top executives must be champions of...
- Blog posts 2008-07-30
- Improve employee training and knowledge transfer with Steve Trautman's Peer Mentoring techniques
- On-the-job IT training is nothing new. For decades, IT professionals have shared their knowledge with colleagues and coworkers. Unfortunately, ad-hoc training approaches often fail to provide an effective learning experience. /* player */ul.play {position:relative;float:none;background:#F3F7FB;border-bottom:0px solid #DDD;margin:0;padding:12px 12px 8px 12px;list-style-type:none;font-size:.85em;}* html ul.play {padding-bottom:6px;}ul.play li {list-style-type:none; padding:0 0 1px...
- Download resources 2006-08-18
- Context and Mentoring: Examining Formal and Informal Relationships in High Tech Firms and K-12 Schools
- Mentoring relationships have been increasingly used as a means for leadership development across a range of contexts. However, it is unclear whether mentoring and its outcomes are a function of the type of mentoring provided within an organization's context. To begin to address this issue, the study presented in this...
- White papers
- Reconceptualising Mentoring
- Previous research reported on the reconceptualisation of mentoring using a three layered model. The model provided a conceptual framework which viewed mentoring as developing through a series of overlapping layers. Within each layer of the model, characteristics and outcomes were identified which were indicative of each layer. This paper explains...
- White papers 2006-01-30
- Facilitating Mentoring Relationships: The Case For New Technology
- This paper describes a research project that analyzes how new technology can facilitate mentoring relationships. The specific new technology assessed in this research is the Internet. This is a particularly useful medium for communication in mentoring relationships because it expands the number and variety of mentoring relationships that can be...
- White papers 2003-06-01
- Mix in Some Mentoring Magic
- Mix in Some Mentoring MagicTried it, didn't like itI once worked with an executive I very much admired -- I wanted her career path to be mine. Since she was not in my direct reporting hierarchy, I asked her to meet with me monthly to share advice and answer my...
- Discussion threads 2008-07-30
- E-mentoring: A longitudinal approach to mentoring relationships for women pursuing technical careers
- ABSTRACT In recent years, the number of formal mentoring programs has increased dramatically. Mentoring programs that target individuals in underrepresented groups or groups of individuals who, statistically, are not likely to succeed are especially effective. These programs are effective because the mentors provide the proteges with a common community and...
- Research articles 2000-07-01
- Boy Scouts of America Recognizes National Mentoring Month, Incorporates Mentoring as Foundation for Scouting Programs
- IRVING, Texas -- Today, 15.1 million young people -- slightly less than half the population of young people between 10 and 18 years of age -- compose the nation's mentoring gap, according to the National Mentoring Partnership. With this deficit a tremendous need for quality mentoring exists among American youth....
- Research articles 2006-01-06
- Creating A Mentoring Culture
- From the executive summary: ‘Today's organizational leaders must think systemically and create mentoring cultures rather than opting for the more expedient route of running a program. A resilient mentoring program requires cultural scaffolding to support its implementation, fully embed it in the organization, and secure organizational investment in the enterprise....
- White papers 2002-11-01
- Understanding Mentoring: Implications for the Canadian Forces
- This paper first provide an overview of mentoring in general, it will then look at its application within the military, and lastly it will address mentoring in the context of the Canadian military. There is general agreement that mentoring is a process that involves a relationship between two people with...
- White papers 2002-05-01
- Mentoring as a Context for Developing Motivation
- With the proliferation of formal mentoring programs in schools it is important to understand the nature of mentoring and the outcomes that can be expected. This paper examines the findings of a national pilot project of mentoring programs for indigenous students, and interprets them in terms of motivation and the...
- White papers 2005-11-29
- Mentoring As A Career Guidance Activity: Fostering Non-Traditional Career Exploration For Girls
- This paper reports on a short term mentoring project conducted in the Australian state of Queensland to foster non-traditional career exploration for girls in the communications/information technology industry. The aim of the paper was to evaluate the possibilities of a short term mentoring program to foster girls' interest in a...
- White papers 2004-05-21
- Mentoring Relationships: An Explanatory Review
- Mentoring is one of those bright ideas that take a periodic grip on the imagination of the policy community. Everyone appreciates that one learns from experience and so much the better if one can trade on the wisdom of others. Here, then, is the kernel of the 'Mentoring movement'. Creating...
- White papers 2004-10-27
- The Power Of Peer Mentoring
- Formalized mentoring has moved into the mainstream of American life. For that reason alone, it belongs in the lives of young people with disabilities. Mentoring incorporates core values important to most of us. It expresses a commitment to ongoing development, capacity building and the expectation of contributing to one's own...
- White papers 2006-08-22
- Mentoring: One Pathway To Aboriginal Talent Development
- There has been a dramatic upsurge of interest in mentoring in schools, post-secondary institutions, government agencies, civic organizations, and businesses across North America. Nowadays in the U.S., for example, it is estimated that in excess of five million youth are being served by school- or community-based mentoring programs (McLearn, Colasanto,...
- White papers 2004-08-12
- Does Mentoring New Faculty Make A Difference?
- The primary purpose of a mentoring program is to help new faculty to fully develop their professional careers, support professional identity and build competence. Mentoring programs also facilitate professional learning, socialization and adaptation of new faculty into their professions (Kalbfleisch & Bach, 1998). This can be effectively accomplished through the...
- White papers 2005-08-28
