Let's start with a fact: there are many definitions of mentoring and most of them 'do the job' for the purpose of which they were developed or created.  I think it's very diffcult to pin down the perfect definition of mentoring - as most of the definitions that I've seen share elements that I think work!

So - what's a person to do?

I'd like to share with you how I see mentoring and what I think is important for organisations and individuals to take into account when posing the question: 'What is mentoring?' for their environment.

So What is Mentoring?

When answering this question, I tend to focus on the characteristics of how I view mentoring which include:

• Mentoring is offline and confidential (out of the performance management relationship)
• Mentoring has a focus that is largely driven by the individual (self-directed)
• Mentoring is about a gap between the mentee and mentor (experience, skills, knowledge etc) which enables learning and development.

So when I put these characteristics together, my 'definition' of mentoring looks something like:

Mentoring is an offline, confidential activity with a self-directed focus, where the gap between the two individuals (or group of individuals) enables a learning and development outcome.

What my 'definition' does not encompass is the plethora of how mentoring can happen, and the good practice guidelines that exist for mentoring to happen in a safe manner, and how mentoring is assessed or evaluated as having met its outcomes.

Mentoring and Other Developmental Activities

Alongside the question of what is mentoring, comes the question of 'mentoring vs coaching'.  My approach is to not make it into an 'either or' situation, but to focus on the constructing a support and developmental system for an individual that takes into account the best mix of opportunities.  

The diagram below represents how I talk about the relationship of mentoring to other forms of development (with a focus on the workplace).  The diagram represents:

• Mentoring - where the focus is on personal, career and professional development (offline)
• Training, Coaching and Managing - where the focus primarily on job performance, results and enhancement (inline)
• Counselling - where the focus is on psychsocial or emotional wellbeing (offline).

Why is this Important to Organisations and Individuals?

It is important for organisations and individuals to be clear in their own mind about how they define and view mentoring.  This is important to ensure:

• Mentoring is not used as a substitute for every developmental activity when in fact the 'gap' should be filled by another form of development - eg. training, coaching, performance managment.
• Expectations of the parties involved in mentoring (eg. mentee, mentor and supervisor) are clear on the activities, boundaries and confidentiality of the mentoring experience.
• Mentoring is not pidgeon holed into a 'one size fits' all approach - contemporary mentoring is a melting 'hot pot' of models and ways in which individuals can engage with mentoring.

Further Reading

And finally - I came across an article recently on Harvard Business Review - Mentoring Demystified - with subsequent comments - here's the link: http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/02/demystifying-mentoring.html.  

The key here is to read widely on the subject and then formulate your orgnisational or personal approach to mentoring.  You might also check out the list of mentoring texts that I use as well - http://www.australianmentorcentre.com.au/Mentoring+Resource+List.

Love to hear your thoughts!

Yours in mentoring

Gilly Johnson, Director