Learning to Mentor

Background

I had a wonderful opportunity to attend a useful workshop organized by the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM) in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). The workshop was entitled 'Women Mentoring Development Programme' was attended by over 40 women from various fields: civil society, small and medium level entrepreneurs, training and education. 

The training was conducted in English by two master trainers who have had experience in mentoring women entrepreneurs. They presented a comprehensive workshop structure which included personal mastery, skills mastery and process mastery. We started with discovering our basic personality attributes to understand our prominent characteristics. We were introduced to a local developed personality assessment tool the LEONARD Personality Inventory. It was quite interesting to discover one's strength and shortcomings based on the analysis. 

I am going to highlight some of the elements of the workshop that impacted me in a positive manner. These were new ideas or constructs that I plan to apply in my work with community based women leaders. Do attend the workshops which end this month in different cities in the country (contact details have been included for your further action).

What is a mentor?

Next, we were introduced to the role a mentor embodies and how it differed from other roles such as consultant, coach and trainer. The emphasis was on learning about the skills set necessary for a mentor. These were listening, questioning and reflecting. The role plays were highly animated and helped participants improve their ability to support a potential mentee.  

Facilitation finesse 

Our trainers were keenly aware that participants were supposed to mingle and network with one another. There were some clever ploy to get participants to move seating position, engage in new groups and pair up with someone they had never met before. In spite of my best efforts, I could hardly speak to everyone in the room, the activities were non-stop and learning was accelerated.

Trainers introduced a video that described the GROW method  developed by Sir John Whitmore in the 1980s to shows us how it worked. 

 

 G.R.O.W

A model with framing questions was provided to us to enable us to understand the process better. I was assigned to test this out in a role play involving two peers. It was quite challenging to remember the framework and apply the skills we had learned. Another useful tool, S.M.A.R.T was provided to ascertain goals to work with a potential mentee. 

 This could be a useful tool for the transfer of knowledge or a specific skill, for instance helping someone develop a business plan or register a business. Mentoring of community based women leaders in rural settings may require a more hands-on approach. The desired change would occur through continuous capacity building and a lot of mentoring. 

You are Mentor! 

As part of our commitment to amplifying the knowledge and skills we acquired at the workshop, we will engage two mentees from friends, family or networks. Once mentees have agreed to a three month stint with at least 3 face to face meetings and other interactions via social media applications such as What's App, the mentoring process commences. Potential mentees were cautioned about the importance of building rapport before engaging in the process and determining some ground rules for engagement. A support system established through a What's App group which includes the trainers and participants of the programme will serve as a platform for participants to glean ideas, exchange strategies and build solidarity as mentors.

Moving on

I have approached two women I work with to discuss the potential of working together on this 3 month project. It seems quite positive as they have agreed to explore this opportunity. I have asked them to think about some goals they may be interested to achieve in 3 months. I will be sharing further on my experience in embracing this new role as a mentor.