What is mentoring?

What is mentoring, where does it come from and what is its purpose? These questions may be the reason you are here. You may already be familiar with mentoring as a type of career guidance. But did you know that many of the heroes we grew up with used a mentor? Indeed! This is the case of Luke with Yoda, Harry Potter with Dumbledore and even the popular Miley Cyrus with her godmother and mentor Dolly Parton! So let’s take a closer look at what mentoring is and where we can apply it.

Let’s see where mentoring comes from. The term mentor originated from the character Mentor in Homer’s Odyssey. Mentor was the companion of Telemachus, son of Odysseus, and guided and advised him during his long journey, far from his native land and his family. Also, in ancient times, the purpose of a mentor was to gather all his experience and wisdom during his life in order to transmit them to his mentee.

Today, the principle of mentoring is very similar, as the mentor shares his or her knowledge, strengths and expertise with the mentee to help him or her develop, both professionally and personally. It is therefore particularly important in the workplace, as it contributes to the integration of new employees, to helping them gain confidence, to their retention and thus to the overall performance of the company or organization.

Therefore, the mentor is the one who gives and shares his or her time and knowledge to the mentee who receives it in order to progress. In other words, mentoring aims to fully exploit the potential of the mentee, considering that each person is unique and has specific skills, and that the mentor’s role is to help bring them out. It is a voluntary, free and confidential relationship, nurtured by both the mentor and the mentee, and beneficial to both who learn continuously throughout the mentoring relationship. It is often said that a mentor is someone who has “been there before”, like a Sherpa who leads the way on a mountain expedition. It is also often said that mentoring is a reciprocal relationship, in that the relationship also contributes to the mentor’s development.

Mentoring is therefore different from other types of professional support, such as coaching, where the coach helps the coachee find answers on his or her own and where coaches are usually certified and paid to help the coachee achieve his or her goals. It also differs from mentoring, where the mission is more about exerting influence to help the mentee progress in his or her career, and from tutoring, which is more about teaching, while the tutor focuses on “job” skills.

Is mentoring for all employers or all companies? We know that it is very common in large companies, but it has a lot of value to bring to SMEs, it just needs to be adapted. In the case of small and medium-sized businesses, the goal is to help new employees better integrate and learn skills from more experienced employees, and for the latter to solidify their knowledge. This is why situational mentoring is often used, i.e., it is of shorter duration, the meetings are brief, frequent and spontaneous, and generational differences are of little importance. Exchanges are real, personalized, pleasant, and help reinforce the mentee’s self-esteem and motivation. This approach is more flexible and allows for a more natural mentoring relationship. In SMEs, situational mentoring can also be used in hybrid mode with more traditional mentoring.

Situational mentoring makes it possible to take advantage of the talents already present in the company in order to help others develop and reveal their strengths and skills. Conversations result in knowledge transfer, where both the mentor and mentee solidify their understanding of the content being discussed. Instead of structuring meetings, the mentor must therefore be available at all times to the mentee’s needs. This is why we can also say that the mentor is the mentee’s guide.

If you’re interested in seeing how mentoring can be used and deployed in your organization, Elo is here to help. With more than 20 years of experience in the mentoring world, our experts are here to support you every step of the way. In addition, program coordinators, mentors, and mentees benefit from personalized coaching and training to make mentoring more impactful and valuable.