Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.
Mentorship
Mentoring is acknowledged as a means of creating a learning relationship in which
individuals share their professional experiences with learners.
Mentoring, at its core, guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, assures them they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter.
Research confirms that quality mentoring relationships have powerful positive effects on young people in a variety of personal, academic, and professional situations. Ultimately, it connects a young person to personal growth and development, and social and economic opportunity. Yet most of the young people in Ghana grow up without this critical asset.
Students often start these programs with pre-conceived notions about engineering and are sometimes discouraged by the mathematics and physics requirements which they don’t associate directly with engineering.
Mentorship is an incredible means by which any young engineering can grow. It’s an invaluable component to developing both hard technical skills as well as soft business skills.
At its best, mentoring can be a life-altering relationship that inspires mutual growth, learning, and development. Its effects can be remarkable, profound and enduring; mentoring relationships have the capacity to transform individual groups, organizations and communities.
(Ragins and Kram,2007b)
The Role of a Mentor
- They act as a role model; a real example of someone you can aspire to be like.
- They give mentees the opportunity to apply their life’s lessons learned without making the same mistakes.
- They answer tough questions even if the mentee don’t know enough to ask them.
Principles of Mentorship
- Trust
- Confidentiality
- Respect
- Sensitivity
Consider the following traits to assess your mentoring skills and areas that
you wish to develop to ensure that the mentoring you offer is effective and
lasting value.
- Good listener
- Flexible
- Knowledgeable
- Able to give constructive feedback
- Honest and candid
- Able to network and find resources
- Willing / able to devote time to developing others
Qualities of a Good Mentor
- Ability and wiliness to clearly communicate his/her values, skills, knowledge
and expertise. - Be prepared always for each mentoring session.
- Be prepared to show faith in his or her mentee’s abilities and willingness to
learn - Should be available, approachable, flexible and be an active listener
- Should be trusted, honest and straight forward
- Should provide guidance and constructive feedback to the mentee
What is needed to advance research on mentoring
- Clear, functional definition of mentoring.
- Definition of success for mentoring relationships.
- Detailed context for the mentoring relationship.
- Detailed list of the roles mentors are playing.
- Attributes for effective mentoring relationships.
- Account of who is doing the mentoring.
- Metrics for assessing knowledge, skills, and effectiveness of relationships.
Establishing clear goals is key for helping us discover what we want to achieve with the mentorship team. It’s a critical step in defining our works and mapping out our efforts moving forward. Steps designed to help focus our thinking so we prepare for our initial goal-setting conversations.
- Clarifying what we want to accomplish.
- Making sure our goals align with reality.
- Determining our benchmarks for success.
- Setting a realistic timeline
- Defining strategies and mapping out the path to success.
- Tracking our progress frequently.
Duties and responsibilities of Mentorship Team
- Oversee and implement the GAME Mentorship Program
- Attract both Mentor volunteers among GAME members and mentee participants from the various institutions, consistent with the broad diversity objectives of the Team.
- Develop and/or strengthen relationships between GAME and the target institutions to assist in the recruitment of the mentees.
- Provide the “Circle” experience so that mentees can work effectively toward achieving their professional development goals and objectives.
- Perform such other duties and responsibilities as may be assigned to the Team from time to time.
- “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.”
Oprah Winfred - “The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.” Benjamin Disraeli
- “The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly
indifferent whether it is taken or not and never persist in trying to set people right.”
Hannah Whitall Smith - “A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in
yourself, and helps bring it out of you.” Bob Proctor