Mentoring Toolkit
A short guide for mentors and mentees to
promote effective mentoring
2017
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
Introduction
Purpose of this document
IBAHCM recognises the importance of mentoring for supporting staff throughout their
career progression. While there is a wealth of information on mentoring available from both
inside and outside of the University, it can be difficult for mentors and mentees to find out
exactly what mentoring entails. The purpose of this document is to provide a compact
‘toolkit’ to guide mentors and mentees within IBAHCM on how to promote an effective
mentoring relationship. We have extracted information widely available for staff from the
University’s Human Resources pages on what we think is the most useful information
mentors and mentees need to know, and provided links where more in depth information
can be found.
What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is a relationship between two people; the mentor and the mentee. As a mentor,
you pass on valuable skills, knowledge and insights to your mentee to help them develop
their career or achieve a better work-life balance.
Mentoring can help the mentee feel more confident and self-supporting. Mentees can also
develop a clearer sense of what they want in their careers and their personal lives. They will
develop greater self-awareness.
Mentoring within the University allow staff the time with an experienced colleague to
explore various issues, such as career progression, work-life balance and career
paths. These pages will focus on mentoring in general.
Benefits of Mentoring
The benefits of mentoring within academia in the support of junior academics who are not
in permanent positions has been increasingly recognised, and mentoring can bring a variety
of benefits to both mentee and mentor. The BBSRC recently published a document called
“Academic Career Mentoring And Best Practice For Formal Mentoring Programmes” which
contains additional information on the benefits of mentoring
(http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/documents/1609-bbsrc-review-mentoring-best-practice/).
The table below highlights some of the benefits of mentoring for both mentors and
mentees.
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
Benefits of Mentoring
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
Table 1 Benefits of Mentoring adapted from the ‘Mentoring Toolkit’, Employee and Organisational
Development, University of Glasgow.
Mentoring Skills- How can you be an Effective Mentor?
To be an effective mentor you should:
Have the desire to help – you should be willing to spend time helping someone else, and
remain positive throughout.
Be motivated to continue developing and growing – to help others develop, you must value
your own growth too. Many mentors say that mentoring helps them with their own
personal development.
Have confidence and an assured manner – you should have the ability to critique and
challenge mentees in a way that's non-threatening, and helps them look at a situation from
a new perspective.
Ask the right questions – the best mentors ask questions that make the mentee do the
thinking. However, this isn't as easy as it sounds. Try asking open questions that cannot be
answered with just yes or no.
Listen actively –Showing someone that you're listening is a valuable skill in itself. It shows
that you value what the person is saying and that you won't interrupt them.
Provide feedback – do this in a way that accurately and objectively summarizes what you've
heard, but also interprets things in a way that adds value for the mentee. This is key to
helping the mentee see a situation from another perspective.
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
Although a mentor requires skills to be an effective mentor, both mentors and mentees require
certain characteristics and qualities for a mentoring relationship to be effective:
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
Models and Frameworks to help with Mentoring
Remember, mentoring is about transferring information, competence, and experience to
mentees, so that they can make good use of this, and build their confidence accordingly. As
a mentor, you are there to encourage, nurture, and provide support. Also remember that
mentoring is about structured development – you don't have to tell the mentee everything
you know about a subject, at every opportunity.
The GROW Model is a coaching technique developed in the 1980s which can help establish
what the mentee wants to discuss.
Sample GROW questions for MPA/Tech/Ops staff
Sample GROW questions for R&T staff
Egan's skilled helper model is a three stage framework used to help people solve problems
and develop opportunities. The object is to achieve lasting change and to empower people
to manage their own problems more effectively and develop unused opportunities more
fully
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
What happens at meetings with my Mentor/Mentee?
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
What Happens if The Mentoring Relationship Doesn’t Work?
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
For a variety of reasons a mentoring partnership may end early (e.g. where the rapport does
not develop sufficiently) and this is ok. It’s better to walk away from a partnership that is not
working and seek an alternative mentor/mentee than continue with a relationship which is
of no benefit to the mentor/mentee.
Resources
Clutterbuck, D. (2004) Everyone Needs a Mentor: Fostering Talent in Your
Organisation, London, CIPD
Clutterbuck, D. and Megginson, D. (2009) Techniques for Coaching and Mentoring, Oxford,
Butterworth Heinneman
Crawford, C.J. (2004) Manager’s Guide to Mentoring, McGraw-Hill Professional
Hay, J. (1995) Transformational Mentoring: Creating Developmental Alliances for Changing
Organizational Cultures, London, McGraw Hill
Lewis, G. (1996) The Mentoring Manager, Institute of Management Foundation, Pitman
Publishing
www.mindtools.com
www.cipd.co.uk
http://new.coachingnetwork.org.uk/
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
The information in this document has been created from the University of Glasgow Employee and Organisational Development section of
the University website
More information can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/humanresources/employeeandorganisationaldevelopment/developmentaltoolkits/mentoringtoolkit/#/the
mentoringmeeting
Created by M Bellingham February 2017
