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What is mentoring?

Mentoring is an important and increasingly common process in universities around the world. Mentoring is a relationship in which a more experienced member of staff (mentor) supports a less experienced colleague (mentee) as the mentee works to develop his or her professional skills and approaches in ways that are relevant to herself or himself.

Mentoring is a confidential, non-reporting relationship. The mentor does not have responsibility for the mentee’s PEDS, and is not reporting ‘progress’ to a supervisor. As a result, the mentee is more able to take supported ‘risks’ in their professional learning, and both are able to be less reserved than would be possible in a more formal relationship. In a formal program, some of the goals of mentoring may be pre-established by the School/Faculty/University, but within the mentoring relationship, the ways in which those goals are addressed and supported is negotiated between the mentee and mentor.

Professional support comes in many forms, and mentoring is one of the more complex of these. Those who become mentors have often already taken on a similar role, that of the sponsor. Below is a list of the activities associated with different professional support roles, developed by Lacey (1999).

Support roles

Supporter	Significant Peer	Role Model	Coach	Sponsor	Mentor
Informal Unconscious	Informal Conscious	Informal Unconscious	Formal Conscious	Informal Unconscious	Formal Conscious
Motivate Support	Motivate Support Teach	Motivate Teach	Motivate Support Teach Counsel	Motivate Support Teach Counsel Promote Protect	Motivate Support Teach Counsel Promote Protect

What types of mentoring are there?

Mentoring can be used in a number of contexts within the University. For example:

• Mentoring for research
• Mentoring for teaching
• Mentoring for administration/a particular role
• Mentoring for career planning
• Mentoring for leadership
• Mentoring for learning (students)

Mentoring in Universities is often used for helping new staff develop into their roles. However there are many different groups which may become a focus for formal mentoring programs: For example:

• New academic staff (general orientation/development)
• New/developing researchers
• New/developing teaching staff
• Casual staff
• Mid-career staff (promotion, etc.)
• Staff in leadership roles
• Equity groups (women, minority groups, indigenous groups, etc.)

Benefits of Mentoring

For Mentees
Mentoring provides an important support and development tool for new and developing staff. It also helps new staff to form relationships within the institution and/or school. Other benefits include:

• increased self-confidence
• the development of reflective practice (by way of having a critical friend)
• access to networking
• a sense of belonging to the school/faculty/institution
• greater understanding of the organisational culture in which he/she is working
• support in specific areas of development and performance
• having a confidential listener for issues that arise in the context of their role

For Mentors
Because mentors are often in a senior role, they have the opportunity to invest their experience into the institution and the individual in a unique way. Benefits for the mentor from this

• recognition of expertise
• identification of possible areas of self-development
• satisfaction of supporting a colleague’s development
• possible organisational recognition and reward
• possibility of conversations leading to new insights for own work.

For Students
Students are also influenced by effective mentoring of staff, albeit less directly. Benefits may include:

• new staff able to identify and implement ‘best’ teaching practices at an earlier stage
• staff research development can enrich the teaching-research nexus, giving students greater access to research-active staff
• role modelling of effective student-staff interaction can enable students to have improved relationship with the mentee staff member
• confident staff more likely to be responsive to student needs

For the Institution

• new staff become more confident and productive at an earlier stage
• feeling of inclusion helps retain new staff
• learning outcomes (students) may be improved
• research outcomes of new staff may be improved or advance more quickly.
• potentially positive impact on CEQ outcomes
• research profile of the institution may improve
• leadership within the university develops more quickly and effectively
• staff in mentor role may become more involved in the university

Possible Drawbacks

Time demands can be the greatest drawback of mentoring programs. Holding regular meetings is a time commitment that must be made in the context of many competing demands, such as teaching, research and administration loads on the part of mentor and mentee alike.

Other possible drawbacks include:

• over-dependence of the mentee on the mentor
• possibility that the mentoring relationship will not work, leaving both parties feeling disengaged
• possibility that confidentiality may be breached by the mentor/mentee
• possibility of competing relationships between staff supervision and staff mentoring
• Lack of communication leading to misunderstandings or expectations not being met (on both sides).

However, most of the drawbacks outlined above can be overcome when mentors and mentees, together with the coordinators of the program make clear the goals, specific expectations and limitations to be set on the mentoring relationship.

Stages of Mentoring

Mentoring relationships develop through a number of stages, hence the tendency in formal programs to allow for a relatively long-term approach (most formal programs will run for six-twelve months, depending on the program goals). Generally we can describe mentoring relationships as having three stages, divided into six parts.

Starting out
To begin with, pairs often come together not knowing one another well, or at all. The initial stage, therefore, involves learning about each other, the mentoring process and its context.

1. Preparation
• Application/pairing
• Training for mentors/mentees
• Initial meetings of pair, establishing roles, expectations etc.

2. Goal-setting
   • Negotiating the purpose/intended outcomes of the mentoring relationship
   • Beginning to develop an action plan (long- and short-term)
   • Learning/developing the use of reflective practice to evaluate progress throughout.

3. Trust-building and mentoring development
   • Becoming more comfortable shoring questions, concerns and experiences
   • Understanding (on both sides) that confidentiality is being maintained
   • Establishing a more personal rapport

Maintaining the mentoring relationship
In the mid-cycle, mentoring partnerships will be securely established. Initial goals will be periodically reviewed and refined as necessary. Partners will be comfortable sharing reflections and experiences on an ongoing basis, and, if they are open to ideas, both mentee and mentor will be developing their communication and professional skills

4. Growth and Action
   • Critical self-reflection
   • Sharing ideas for action
   • Revisiting long-term goals, developing action plans and timelines to achieve goals
   • Some goals and actions completed
   • Mentee connecting to new networks
   • Increasing openness (both mentor and mentee) to constructive feedback on observed activities, plans, written materials etc.
   • Maintaining consistent contact (in line with expectations set during orientation)

Closure of the formal mentoring relationship
Most sponsored mentoring programs work within a timeframe. As the mentoring relationship matures, the mentee will become increasingly self-dependent, with independent access to networks, a firmer knowledge of the institution, greater self-confidence and an enhanced ability to critically assess his or her own progress. This marks a turning point in the mentoring relationship. As the pair begin to separate from the roles of mentor and mentee and move towards collegiality. Support is still available to the mentee, but increasingly feedback will become less formal. Instead feedback might involve the mentor acting as a sounding board for the mentee’s ideas and reflections, answering quick questions, etc. What once required a focussed hour-long meeting may by this stage take a ten minute chat, coffee, phone-call or even simply a short email.

5. Evolution
   • Mentee uses personal reflection to develop own goals and action plans, asks for feedback rather than joint decisions/advice
   • Outcomes from initial long-term goals become evident
   • Mentor responds to mentee increasingly as a colleague rather than as a protégée
6. Transformation: Mentoring to collegiality
   • a formal close to the mentoring relationship
   • celebration of the goals achieved during the mentoring relationship
   • a change in the relationship from mentor/mentee to colleagues

Note: Occasionally a pair may decide to continue the mentoring relationship after the formal program has come to an end. In this case renegotiation will occur, with the partners agreeing on new/revised expectations, goals and outcomes.

Further information and resources can be found through the links below:

## Information for schools
Information for mentors and mentees
Resources ##