The document discusses mentorship and provides guidance on becoming a mentor. It defines mentorship as a relationship built on trust and mutual regard that involves using expertise and knowledge to provide guidance and support. It can come from various sources. The document outlines the stages of mentorship as preparation, negotiation, growth, and completion. It also discusses identifying suitable mentees, finding time for mentorship, styles of mentorship, indicators of successful and failed mentorship, and knowing when to end a mentorship. The overall message is that mentorship is a reciprocal relationship that benefits both parties when built on clear expectations, mutual respect, and personal connection.

1. Can I really
be a mentor ?
Sarah Klassen-Rempel
@sarahklassen

2. Why mentorship ?

3. Some quick admin
Slides can be found here:
Notes from this session will be added.
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http://www.sarahklassenrempel.com/be-a-mentor/

4. What we will cover
● What is mentorship?
● When are you ready to be a mentor?
● How do you find time?
● Who should you mentor?
● What are the stages and styles of mentorship?
● What indicates success and failure in mentorship?
● When do you end a mentorship?

5. What is mentorship?

6. What is mentorship?
mentor
mentee
What does
it mean to
you?

7. What is mentorship?
“the guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced
person in a company or educational institution.” (dictionary)
“traditionally seen as informal, intense and personal relationship between two individuals,
often within the confines of the same organization” (Van Eck Peluchette, J & Jeanquart, S.)
“a constellation of relationships, and mentoring may come from a
variety of sources with multiple mentoring relationships able to
exist simultaneously from different sources with different impacts
on career success” (Van Eck Peluchette, J & Jeanquart, S.)
“Heart of mentoring is a relationship based on trust and mutual regard where one
colleague uses their expertise and knowledge to support the development of
another colleague.” (Imperial College of London Learning and Development Centre)

8. What is mentorship?
A relationship built on trust and mutual regard which involves using expertise
and knowledge to provide guidance and support. It can come from a variety of
sources.

9. What is mentorship?
A relationship built on trust and mutual regard which involves using expertise
and knowledge to provide guidance and support. It can come from a variety of
sources.
How do you
apply this?

10. Types of mentorship

11. Types of mentorship
Traditional
Apprenticeships,
academic
supervisors,
patronages
Corporate
Managed through a
company structure
Formal
Voluntary, but
managed through a
formal program
Professional
Defined relationship
managed individually
Relational
No clear definition,
but provides
mentorship when
needed

12. Benefits of mentorship

13. Benefits of mentorship
For Mentors:
● Supports the profession
● It’s reciprocal, so you’ll learn and grow
too
● Gain new perspectives
● Practice active listening and empathy
● It’s a good thing to do (altruistic)
For Mentees:
● Support and encouragement
● Increased self-awareness
● Clarity of purpose and productivity
● Proven positive impact on rate of
advancement, salary attainment,
supervisory ratings of performance

14. When are you ready to be a mentor?

15. When are you ready to be a mentor?
● No clear moment that makes you “ready”
● Seen as something for people who are older and have more experience, but
all you need is to have experience someone can learn from
○ “but you still went through something I haven’t yet”

16. How do you find time ?

17. How do you find time ?
“It’s about making time, not making lack of time an excuse” (Liu, R.)

18. How do you find time ?
● Mentees should be respectful of time constraints
○ It helps the success of the mentorship if the mentee takes on the responsibility of ‘driving’
the relationship
● Incorporate into work
● Regular sessions
● Consistent milestones

19. Who should you mentor?

20. Who should you mentor?
mentor
mentee
What do you
look for in
potential
mentee?

21. Who should you mentor?
● Mentees benefit most from having mentors that are like them
● They need to be respectful of time and drive initiative
● You should have a personal connection
● Casual and comfortable relationship

22. Who should you mentor?
If you need to say no:
● be polite and thoughtful
● let them know why and if they should ask you again in the future
● if you can think of someone else who might be a better fit, make the
introduction
● If you have some resources that might help them in the short run, send it

23. What are the stages and styles of
mentorship?

24. What are the stages of mentorship?
Preparation Negotiation Growth Completion
According to The Mentor’s Guide by L.J. Zachary

25. What are the stages of mentorship?
Preparation
● Get to know each other
● Understand each other’s context
● Build clarity in expectations and roles
● Discover your personal motivation
● Asses areas for your own learning and development
According to The Mentor’s Guide by L.J. Zachary

26. What are the stages of mentorship?
Negotiation
● Create and establish your routine
● Build a shared understanding about assumptions, expectations, goals, and
needs
● Talk about soft issues
● Establish ground rules, confidentiality, and boundaries
According to The Mentor’s Guide by L.J. Zachary

27. What are the stages of mentorship?
Growth
● Work phase - this is where the mentorship actually happens
According to The Mentor’s Guide by L.J. Zachary

28. What are the stages of mentorship?
Completion
● End of the relationship
● Look back and review
● Highlight positive learning and evaluate the progress
● Acknowledge and celebrate achievements
According to The Mentor’s Guide by L.J. Zachary

29. What are the stages of mentorship?
Preparation Negotiation Growth Completion
According to The Mentor’s Guide by L.J. Zachary
“Fluid yet foreseeable cycle”

30. What are the styles of mentorship?
Formal
Informal
SocialVocational

31. What are the styles of mentorship?
Formal
Informal
SocialVocational
- regular meetings,
defined communication
style
meet or communicate
when needed in ways that
fit the situation -

32. What are the styles of mentorship?
Formal
Informal
SocialVocational - can get into more
social topics
focus on work
related topics -

33. What are the styles of mentorship?
Formal
Informal
SocialVocational
● Corporate
● Traditional
● Formal
● Professional
● Relational

34. What indicates success and
failure in mentorship?

35. What indicates success and
failure in mentorship?
mentor
mentee
What do you
consider
success/failure?

36. What indicates success ?
● Mentorship is reciprocal - must be bidirectional to make the relationship
sustainable and mutually rewarding
● Mutual respect between all parties
● Clear expectations that are outlined at the onset and revisited throughout,
with both parties being accountable to the expectations
● Has a level of personal connection - this is not just being ‘friends’, but a
personal desire to interact and connect with one another
● Shared values around approach to research, work and personal life
According to ‘Characteristics of Successful and Failed Mentoring Relationships: A Qualitative Study
Across Two Academic Health Centers’ by S. E. Straus, M.O. Johnson, C. Marquez, and M.D. Feldman

37. What indicates failure ?
● Poor communication, including lack of open communication, or tactful
interpretation
● Lack of commitment, both time committed to relationship or waning
interest over time
● Personality differences, especially in worldview and outlook, or working
styles
● Perceived (or real) competition or conflicts of interest
● Lack of experience in desired learning environment
According to ‘Characteristics of Successful and Failed Mentoring Relationships: A Qualitative Study
Across Two Academic Health Centers’ by S. E. Straus, M.O. Johnson, C. Marquez, and M.D. Feldman

38. When do you end a mentorship?

39. When do you end a mentorship?
Will be different for each situation, but often there is a natural ending, through:
● An issue being resolved,
● Someone moving away
● The end of a time limit that was agreed on at the beginning

40. When do you end a mentorship?
Can come to an unexpected end for a variety of reasons:
● Lack of communication or connection
● Difficult logistics meaning mentor and mentee can never find a mutually
suitable time and location
● Mentee is not making the best use of time and expertise of the mentor
● Mentee is not listening to advice or support from the mentor

41. How are we going to apply this?

42. Bibliography
D’Angelo, M. (2018) ‘How to Find a Mentor’, Business News Daily, https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6248-how-to-find-mentor.html [Accessed
30-04-2019].
Ehrich, L.C., and Hansford, B., (1999) ‘Mentoring: Pros and cons for HRM’ in Asia Paacific Journal of Human Resources, 337(3), pp. 92-107.
Imperial College of London Learning and Development Centre (2014) ‘Being a mentee - how to get the most from mentoring’,
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/administration-and-support-services/staff-
development/public/docs/menteebook2015.pdf.
Liu, R., (2019) Why Mentoring Someone Can Change Your Life, Medium, https://medium.com/swlh/why-mentoring-someone-can-change-your-
life-b7793ad046af.
Martina, C.A., Mutrie, A., Ward D., and Lewis V., (2014) ‘A Sustainable Course in Research Mentoring’, in CTS, 7.5, pp. 413-419.
Scandura, T.A., (1992) ‘Mentorship and career mobility : and empirical investigation’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, pp. 169-174.
Straus, S. E., Johnson, M. O., Marquez, C. and Feldman, M. D., (2013) ‘Characteristics of Successful and Failed Mentoring Relationships: A
Qualitative Study Across Two Academic Health Centers’ in Acad Med, 88(1), pp. 82-89.
Tait, J., (2003) ‘What is mentorship?’ in The Canadian Veterinary Journal, 44.9, pp 758-760.
Van Eck Peluchette, J & Jeanquart, S., (2000), ‘Professionals’ Use of Different Mentor Sources at Various Career Stages: Implications for career
success’, The Journal of Social Psychology, 140(5), pp. 549-564 (originally from 1996 conference).
Zachary, L.J., (2012) ‘The predictable phases of mentoring’ in The mentor’s guide 2nd ed., Wiley and Sons Inc., pp 87-92.

43. Thank you !
Slides can be found here:
Sarah Klassen-Rempel
@sarahklassen
http://www.sarahklassenrempel.com/be-a-mentor/