SUCCESS THROUGH MENTORING
Mentoring is booming – however it is no short-lived fashion quirk. All participants profit from the historically rooted concept of one-to-one consultation!
The concept is simple: an experienced, competent and mostly older person (mentor) accompanies and supports a younger person (mentee) for a certain period in the development of their individual potential.
In regular discussions experience and insider knowledge is passed on and questions of the mentee concerning concrete situations, every day work or also long term career strategies are dealt with. The goal of this exchange of experience is the furthering of the personal development as well as the deepening of the professional competence of the mentee. The mentor is here an advisor and a confidant.
Besides informal mentoring, which occurs outside of institutional frameworks, three types of formal mentoring can be differentiated.
> In internal mentoring all participants belong to the same organization. This type of mentoring is used in management development, teaching among other things informal rules of the game and internal know-how. The mentor must not be a direct superior because this would reduce the openness and trust between the participants.
> If the mentor and mentee are not from the same organization, and the program is organized by an independent intermediary (e.g. a union), then it is called external mentoring. The advantage is that the consultancy is on a voluntary basis and the openness is often greater.
> The most innovative type of mentoring is cross mentoring, which was initiated in Austria by HILL International. This mentoring program, where mentor and mentee belong to different partner organizations, makes an exchange of know-how possible, which transcends branch specific perspectives. The famous »view outside the box« brings new perspectives and enables new solutions.
The advantages of mentoring for the mentee are clear: he/she has the chance to develop on a personal as well as on a professional level. Mentoring enables better (self) reflection, the focused setting of career steps and also the obtaining of important contacts.
However the mentor also benefits: besides the satisfaction of having had an important influence on the success of another person, the mentor profits from the feedback and knowledge of his »protégé«. This can be an important stimulus for self-reflection and the development of the mentor him/herself. Also the mentor can develop his/her consulting competence and expand his/her network.
This balance between give and take is the basis of every successful mentoring, and the intensive partnership between mentor and mentee makes mentoring an inimitatable consulting concept!
To learn more about (cross)mentoring and other consulting possibilities, please contact the experts from HILL International.
Mag. Melanie Harrer
