Mentoring

True or false: Mentoring only takes place in work or formal settings.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Feedback for True: Work and formal areas are great places for mentoring but it isn’t the only place. Informal settings can just as useful in unstructured areas of life.

Feedback for False: That’s right! Mentoring can take place anywhere in almost any setting.

Mentoring NOT useful at:

• Work places

• Schools

• Military

• It’s almost always useful

Answer explanation

Work places - Feedback: Not quite. Work mentors can be good resources in the right context.

Schools - Feedback: Not quite. Schools have mentors a lot to help student grow.

Military - Feedback: Not quite. Although many are superiors, mentors can be very useful in the military.

It’s almost always useful

Feedback: That’s right! Mentoring can be found almost everywhere.

In writing your essay for the benefits of mentoring, you were to list important elements from the videos within the presentation and discuss how these would benefit your performance goals.

In each of the two scenarios, review the performance goals cited for the two individuals. Then select the benefits of mentoring listed that seem to align with those goals. There may be more than one applicable benefit that can aid the performance goals.

Juan has just been hired as an assistant teaching specialist for a local library that offers an adult literacy program. He has three years of High School teaching experience within Language Arts. One of his professional goals includes: creating project-based learning modules in order to boost his students’ internal motivation toward increasing their literacy skills. This is something he has no experience with. Which of the benefits of mentoring seem to be beneficial to his goal?

• Experience and Wisdom provided by a mentor who models and promotes rigorous depth in habit training. A focus on novel business practices that sets the protégé apart from the herd in inventing and promoting new products is this mentor’s specialty.

• The power of kindness is touted by a mentor who has invested herself in relationship building with customers, consultants, and colleagues.

• Diversity within teamwork enterprises is the important skill that this mentor pushes to proteges. His ideas promote that groups are stronger when there are people within from varied backgrounds, ethnicities, experiences, and perspectives.

• Mentorship relationships require trust within a safe environment. This mentor’s past

  experiences proved that he could not succeed when his environment was not influential toward positive goal achievement. This mentor models foundational trust with his protégé in order to create a safe environment.

Answer explanation

A: NOPE! Juan is not interested in creating products to sell. This mentor may have some generally helpful advice, but his specialty is too detailed within product development to have a focused ability to help Juan increase his students’ motivation through educational efforts.

B: YES! This mentor’s skillset is geared toward positivity within peer, subordinate, and superordinate relationships. This can help Juan discover how to make genuine connections with his students in order to create trust in the teaching and learning relationship.

C: YES! Juan is working with the idea of Project Based Learning and groupwork is an inherently efficient way to execute large projects whereby students break the work down among the group and work toward a common goal. This mentor promotes ideas on how to create the best products from teamwork.

D: YES! Juan is working with adults who struggle with literacy and are seeking to better themselves by enrolling in his program. They will need an environment that is safe and fosters an element of trust in him and among the other students. Project based learning also requires this sort of interaction, Juan know he will need to design the pbl experiences so that the students can operate to their greatest potential without fearing failure.

Amelia is a new hire at an advertising firm specializing in Arts and Entertainment promotion. This is her first position after graduating from an applied arts college. She is an incredibly talented designer, and has an impressive work ethic, but she is somewhat introverted. She knows that in order to grow in her profession, she will need to grow her professional network and seek opportunities to lead sales pitch efforts. One of her professional goals is to increase her confidence in building business connections. Which of the benefits of mentoring seem to be beneficial with her goal?

• Visibility and Self-promotion is this mentor’s priority in fostering her proteges into finding satisfaction with their job. She believes strongly in finding the “thing” that leads employees into passionate action.

• Team-building is this mentor’s strength as she has invested in surrounding herself with people of similar job focus but also bring a wide range of abilities and perspectives to the team dynamic.

• Leadership at the highest level through appropriating colleagues’ ideas into modified successful business models is this mentor’s specialty. He believes as Picasso once said, “That good artists borrow, but great artists steal.”. His success is highly dependent on listening to others and culling the best material toward his promotions.

• Mentorship relationships require trust within a safe environment. This mentor’s past experiences proved that he could not succeed when his environment was not influential toward positive goal achievement. This mentor models foundational trust with his protégé in order to create a safe environment.

Answer explanation

A: YES!!! Amelia is looking to boost her confidence and build her promotional skills beyond her impressive abilities within design craft.

B: YES!!! Amelia will need support from people who are focused on similar outcomes with varied input methods to help her find her confident focus to developing her skills in connecting with businesses.

C: NOPE!!! While this mentor’s tactics employ the good of others, and at times, it is a beneficial tactic, Amelia is really more interested in networking for connections and gaining personal confidence through that process. Not in taking networked ideas and running them as her own.

D: YES!!! Amelia is somewhat introverted and would benefit greatly from a mentor that provides a very safe environment for her to ask questions, intimate fears, and make plans toward greater confidence and visibility.

Having program supports and commitment to the mentoring process increases effectiveness. Administrators must provide leadership and support by:

• Integrating mentoring into the professional development system;

• Allocating staff and time for mentoring,

• Providing recognition and rewards for mentors and protégés.

• Administrators should require skilled staff to mentor even if they don't want to participate.

Answer explanation

A: Yes!!! Integrating mentoring into the professional development system is important.

B: Yes!!! Allocating staff and time for mentoring is necessary for quality mentoring programs.

C: Yes!!! Providing recognition and rewards for mentors and protégés increases effectiveness of mentoring programs.

D: Nope, forcing individuals that don't want to mentor will negatively impact the mentoring program.

True or False: Matching mentors with protégés isn't necessary.

• True!

• False

Answer explanation

True is incorrect

False is correct! When organizations have a careful selection process of quality mentors, and the processes include the matching of mentors with their protégés, their mentoring program will be more successful.

________ describes the process that deliberately pairs two people with different skills and experiences together so that learning is transferred from one to the other.

• Tasking

• Mentoring

• Mint-tea-ing

• Coaching

Answer explanation

Mentoring -describes the process that deliberately pairs two people with different skills and experiences together so that learning is transferred from one to the other.

_______ is the role someone takes on by someone willing to help others learn and grow.

• Mentee

• Protégé

• Mentor

• Odysseus

Answer explanation

Mentor is the role someone takes on by someone willing to help others learn and grow.

______ a variety of roles, including but not limited to coaching, tutoring, or demonstrating.

• Coaching

• Tutoring

• Counseling

• Tasks

Answer explanation

Tasks- a variety of roles, including but not limited to coaching, tutoring, or demonstrating.

_______to instruct and share expertise.

• Protégé

• Tutoring

• Tasking

• Menteeing

Answer explanation

Tutoring-to instruct and share expertise.