International Mentoring Day
Today is International Mentoring Day and to mark the occasion, we wanted to remind our members of the Mentoring Platform, how you can sign up as a mentor, and what is involved.
What is a mentor?
A mentor is someone who will encourage and support a person to make the most of their career and develop their personal skills. They do this by providing impartial, non-judgmental guidance and support. A mentor’s role isn’t to tell a mentee what to do, it is to act as a guide.
Mentors wouldn’t be expected to have all the answers. Instead, they would use their knowledge, perspective and experience to work with the mentee and act as an impartial sounding board and signpost them to resources. The mentor asks questions and draws out the mentee’s own thoughts before offering advice and providing additional options.
Who can become a mentor?
All CIEEM members can become a mentor and you can be at any grade of membership, at the start of your career or retired, working in any role and any sector. The main requirement is that you are able to commit time and effort in developing a relationship with a mentee.
- Other key qualities and skills we are looking for in a mentor are:
- Helping others to reach their potential
- A desire to make a difference
- Willingness to share your knowledge and experience with others
- An approachable manner
- Good listening, questioning and feedback skills
At present we have 134 mentors who are currently supporting 450 mentees, so we are keen to encourage more of our members to consider becoming a mentor. If we have more mentors available, then we can offer more of our members the opportunity to receive valuable support and advice. We are also looking to increase the range of expertise being provided to further develop the support available.
We would like to be able to offer all final-year student members and recent graduates the opportunity to have a mentor to help them with the transition from university to finding their first job. So if you are an early career member at qualifying or associate grade, you may have relevant experience of making this transition yourself and would therefore be in a good position to be able to offer relevant support and valuable insights to others who are about to make this step in joining the industry. You might be able to provide some career support and advice on how to find a suitable role, where to look and use your experience to guide them through this transition.
We are also keen to encourage more of our Fellows and Chartered members to become a mentor.
What the role entails:
- Exploring different scenarios with a mentee
- Widening their perspective and encouraging them to look at differing aspects
- Acting as a sounding board for new ideas
- Listening and discussing personal and work issues
- Asking probing and stimulating questions
- Helping mentees set goals
- Providing honest and constructive feedback and ongoing support and encouragement
The time commitment can vary depending on the nature of the mentoring relationship and goal, but can be 30 minutes a week, an hour every 2 weeks, or even an hour once a month.
The duration and frequency would be agreed upon between you and the mentee at the start of the relationship to suit both parties and will depend on the nature of the mentoring relationship – for example, if this is for a short-term goal to help fill in a job application or to review a CV, then you maybe have several meetings within a shorter time frame.
Meetings can be held online via the built-in video chat on the mentoring platform, or via Ms Teams, Zoom, phone, or even face-to-face if feasible.
You could be reviewing CVs and covering letters, helping with an upgrade of membership or applying for chartership, providing support on to progress in a career, supporting someone on how to manage their work and home life more effectively, or how to develop people and project management skills.
Are you feeling inspired to take the next step?
Have a look at our webinar ‘Could you be our next Mentor’ which provides an overview of the CIEEM mentoring platform and insights from a panel of mentors on what it is like being a mentor.
What could you do today to mark International Mentoring Day?
- Sign up to the Mentoring Platform as a mentor or mentee
- Already signed up, then check your profile details are up to date, maybe it is time to refresh your profile and consider what you are looking for in a mentor, set yourself a new challenge or skill to learn.
- If you are a mentor, then log in to see any potential matches you have and also reach out to those who you mentor to see how they are progressing.
- If you are being mentored or have received mentoring, then why not reach out to your mentor to say thank you and give them an update on what you are up to and how their support might have helped you? Give them a call, send a text, or drop them an email to say thank you. Why not arrange a catch-up or share your gratitude on social media?
- Share your top tips for being mentored or providing mentoring to others.
- Have a look at our webinar ‘Could you be our next Mentor’ which provides an overview of the CIEEM mentoring platform and insights from a panel of mentors on what it is like being a mentor.