Mentoring Future Leaders

Mentoring Future Leaders
What Mentees Look for in Mentors
Mentors Qualities
particular © Learning Link area. International
April 2005
(Research by Brian O’Neill quoted by Gareth Lewis, 2000, p.32)
1. Management perspective. Someone who has experience of, and
competence in management. Alternatively, through experience working
with managers in organisations, someone who has had widespread
exposure to and understands management practice and pressures.
2. Organisational know-how. Someone who knows how to get things
done within the organisational system in which the learner works.
3. Credibility. Someone who enjoys personal and professional credibility
either in his/her own right or with the members of the organisation in
which the learner works.
4. Accessibility. Someone who is able to make him/herself available to
others when they need it.
5. Communication. Someone who has a wide range of interpersonal
skills and can tune into others’ ideas, views and feelings.
6. Empowering orientation. Someone who creates a climate and the
conditions in which it is safe for individuals to try out different ways of
doing things, to contribute more fully, and to have a greater share in
what is going on in their organisation.
7. Developmental orientation. Someone who has experience of and
takes a keen and active interest in others’ development
8. Inventiveness. Someone who is open to new ideas and to different
ways of doing things; someone who perceives different and useful
connections and patterns, and is a good, creative problem-solver in his/
her own right.
Quick Test : My Qualities as a Mentor
• Prioritise the above from 1 to 8.
• Give yourself marks out of ten for each category of skills.
• Identify one or two areas that you would like to improve.
1. _____________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________
Decide how you are going to develop your knowledge/skills in this
Module 2 - Focus on Mentors and
Mentees
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