Category Archives: Insights

The Mentor’s Guide Book Review

The Mentor’s Guide was always an exceptional book. In this third edition, just released, Lois Zachary has been joined by her talented and dynamic daughter, Lisa Fain, CEO of Center for Mentoring Excellence. The book reflects a modern model of mentoring, grounded in adult learning theory, as a self-directed multidimensional relationship of mutual exchange. The […]

Mentoring in the Public Sector

Many of the studies on mentoring have been conducted in the educational, arts or corporate sectors. There is far less research on government mentoring. So, what do we know about what makes public sector mentoring different? Is it different? To some degree, the same individual and organizational benefits derive from mentoring, no matter the sector. […]

Why mentoring programs derail (and what to do about it)

In 2016, 2017 and again in 2022, we surveyed organisations and found that only just over half were actually satisfied with the results being delivered by their mentoring programs. An analysis comparing those that were satisfied (leaders), with those that were not (laggards), revealed once again in 2022 that lack of program success is highly […]

Strategic Mentoring – can you afford NOT to do it?

In 2022, one of the most pressing people issues is a shortage of talent. There is no question that retaining people – whether they are defined as high performing talent or not, is critical. Getting the employee value proposition right is the key. So where does mentoring fit in with what employees are looking for? […]

How to mentor when times are really tough

It may sound trite to say times are tough right now. But wherever you live, the stresses on daily life have been relentless. With a global pandemic, conflict in Ukraine, and in many parts of the world, the impacts of climate change in the form of fires, massive storms and floods, it would be hard […]

Mentorships

Mentorship Definition What is mentorship? The simplest way to define mentorship is to think about it in its most usual form – a helping relationship in which one person, usually more experienced or senior, takes time to assist the career, professional or personal development of someone else, who is known as a mentee, mentoree, or […]

Inside-out Mentoring: Enabling Your Brand Champions

Most organisations ‘do mentoring’ back-to-front. They launch a program because people ask for it, or because they think it’s one of those things that an organisation should have for its employees. They start by focusing on who they want to influence and what they want them to learn, i.e. the mentees. But what if they had been […]

Becomingness: a critical element of coaching and mentoring

GUEST BLOG One of the many myths of coaching and mentoring is that personal growth is primarily a planned activity – so coaches and mentors should concentrate on helping people to set and pursue goals. The reality is somewhat different. Human beings are growing and changing constantly and most of this evolution is unplanned, uncontrolled, […]

Why embark on STRATEGIC mentoring?

Anyone who has attended our webinars or read our blogs would know that for the program designers at Art of Mentoring, everything starts with organisational goals. Our fundamental philosophy is around “strategic mentoring” or a “strategic approach to mentoring”. It just makes sense to us that mentoring initiatives must be closely linked to what the […]

How to build a mentoring culture

Critical to business success is the creation of an environment where people want to join the organisation, perform and commit to stay. Yet, developing and sustaining a positive organisational culture is easier said than done. In The Ripple Effect, Melissa Richardson pointed to a set of human needs that, when met, can create positive organisational […]