"Micro-Mentoring” – Good Things Come in Small Packages

ADVOCACY MATTERS
The Advocates’ Society
WINTER 2023

EVENT REPORT
“Micro-Mentoring” – Good
Things Come in Small Packages
Nathan Sutherland (he/him), Pink Larkin
In October 2022, the 10+ Standing Committee
hosted an online panel discussion about
“micro-mentoring.” Before this session, I had
not encountered the term. Once I heard it,
it clicked right away: it put a name to something
that many lawyers may do to some extent
already (intentionally or not). In short,
“micro-mentoring” involves giving or receiving
mentoring through brief, informal encounters,
rather than formal, long term mentoring relationships.
The panelists who helped attendees explore
this practice were Cynthia Kuehl of Lerners LLP,
Fabio Longo of Longo Lawyers, and Sara Scott
of Stewart McKelvey. From their comments, it
was clear they are all passionate and thoughtful
mentors. During the hour-long panel discussion,
they explored how they think about
and practise micro-mentoring.
A key theme was the ways micro-mentoring
can supplement formal mentoring relationships.
Micro-mentoring is more organic and
flexible. The sessions are usually brief or oneoff
meetings, and therefore easier to fit into
lawyers’ schedules. They can address anything
from advocacy skills, to business development,
to the personal vs professional dynamic. A single
mentor can’t be all things to a mentee –
sporadic micro-mentoring sessions can fill the
gaps.
As lawyers we all know how critical mentoring
is, but how hard it is to do well. That may
be because we ask too much of “formal” mentoring.
The panelists explained that we can be
better mentors and mentees if we look at new
ways to think about mentoring relationships.
End note: TAS launched a new mentoring portal in January 2023 to provide
micro-mentoring opportunities for members. As of the writing of
this piece, the program had over 80 mentors from a variety of practice
areas across Canada. Registration on the site is exclusive to TAS members.
Learn more about this new program here.
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