About mentoring

The Mentoring School

What is mentoring?

The broad stroke answer is to support and advise someone with less experience to help them achieve their goals or overcome barriers.

But what does that look like in the real world?

At The Mentoring School we base all of our training on the fundamental concepts which underpin effective mentoring, and as such developed a series of tools and models to explain this conceptual framework.

Whether you are considering becoming a mentor or just want to learn more about the topic, take a look at these resources to get to grips with what mentoring means.

The 5 pillars of mentoring

This model breaks down the overarching idea of mentoring into 5 pillars with associated subcategories. Within a context of established trust and safety, they support best practice principles for effective mentoring.

From a basic introduction at entry level, to an in depth understanding of the theory and literature which underpins each pillar in advanced courses, our training regularly refers to this structure for continuity of concept. It is also useful to refer to when mentors want to assess and improve their practice as part of their ongoing learning and development.

The mentoring flowchart

At each stage of a mentoring relationship there are choices to be made by both mentee and mentor which will shape the way that mentorship unfolds.

Selecting a specific type of mentoring, monitoring progress to inform next steps, assessing the impact of contextual changes, and responding to a mentee’s challenges, all require informed decision-making.

The Mentoring Flowchart serves as a guideline for mentors as they reflect on what direction and support would be most suitable for their mentee’s situation. It is designed to help them consider options in the longer-term context of the mentorship’s ultimate goals.

With each level of training completed comes deeper understanding of the influences of experience, theory, wider literature and how they affect the suitability of options.

The mentoring session model

Whilst the context of mentoring relationships is almost limitless, the fundamental structure of mentoring conversations is in fact fairly consistent.

The Mentoring Model was developed from extensive experience, research and consultation to provide a framework for the stages of conversation to deliver the effective sessions.