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Getting the Most Out of Mentoring

Mentoring (“learning by association with a relevant role model”)[1] is now used by many organizations in the library and information profession as a valuable career development tool. This is the case in the UK and in America; in Australia, our Library and Information Association (ALIA) endorses mentoring as one of the CPD learning activities that count towards its members’ Continuing Professional Development assessment. Many employers (particularly in our higher education sector) encourage experienced staff members to mentor new professionals as they come into the workforce.

If, like me, you have the opportunity to take part in a professional mentoring program: do it! Mentoring has been one of my most rewarding experiences as a librarian. It drew on and developed all of my skills in coaching, counseling and motivating, it helped me feel that I was “giving something back” to the profession, it challenged and stimulated me in a dozen different ways. Best of all, over the six-month mentoring program, I had the joy of seeing my mentoree develop her confidence and skills to the point where she moved happily into a new and exciting job. Whether you participate as a mentor or as a mentoree, you stand to gain immensely from the experience. Here are my tips for getting the most out of mentoring.

Join a structured program

Your employer, a local training organization or your professional association may be able to give you access to a mentoring program. Where I work, at the University of Adelaide, I was able to join the university’s WPDN (Women’s Professional Development Network) staff mentoring program; in South Australia, a local branch of ALIA runs a group called Mentor SA. Ask colleagues, search the Internet, contact your professional association and see what options you can find.

The benefits of participating in a structured program are very significant. When I joined the WPDN, I received clear guidelines on the mentoring process, attended training sessions and met my fellow mentors. Throughout the six-month program, we had opportunities to get together and discuss our mentoring strategies, successes and failures. I found this support network to be invaluable. My mentoree also attended workshops and discussions, and came away from these with clear expectations about the objectives of mentoring, her role as a mentoree and my role as her mentor.

Set goals and objectives

Whether you are part of a structured program or not, it is vital to set goals and objectives for mentoring, and to develop a specific action plan. The clearer you are about what you want, the easier it is to get it! For example, a mentoree might want to make herself more “visible” in her organization; in discussions with her mentor, she could learn about the right committee(s) to join or the most appropriate work project to become involved with. My friend, Helen, as a mentoree, decided that she needed to develop her presentation skills to get the kind of job she wanted; her mentor coached her in these skills and gave her opportunities to speak to a number of community groups.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions

Mentors want to help you, and the more questions you ask us, the more we can do for you! Mentoring is based on mutual trust, openness and confidentiality. We are your friends, colleagues and teachers rather than your managers or supervisors; in a good mentoring relationship, you should feel free to ask even the trickiest of questions! So if you want our advice on organizational politics, or if you need to know who we really think would be the best supervisor for your research project, please ask us.

Be prepared to accept criticism

My colleague Karen showed her CV to her mentor, and was very taken aback when Andrea suggested making a lot of changes to it. It isn’t easy to accept feedback when it doesn’t come in the form of praise or reinforcement of what you’re doing. Karen was initially upset when she began the major task of rewriting her CV, but as she did so, she realized how valuable Andrea’s advice was. Andrea’s job in Human Resources meant that she saw many CVs in her day-to-day work, and when she passed on her experience and insights to her mentoree, Karen was able to produce a much more professional and polished curriculum vitae.

Keep a journal

Mentoring encourages “reflective practice”, the process of carefully considering your learning and assimilating it into your work practices. A learning journal is a recognized tool in this process; both the mentor and the mentoree can benefit from keeping a personal record detailing their mentoring activities and outcomes. You can make notes of your meetings, the actions you need to take, the insights that you are gaining. A mentoree can review his progress towards his goals, a mentor can use her journal as a tool for reflecting on what has worked (or not!) with her mentoring strategies and coaching skills..

Explore more by reading

The activities that you decide to work on with your mentor can lead (both of) you in many directions. For example, when my mentoree went to a particular conference, she came back with ideas about the effect of personality on career choice and job satisfaction. Robyn’s enthusiasm encouraged me to do the Myers Briggs Personality Inventory again myself, and to do further reading in this area of workplace psychology (which has helped me with my work as a trainer and Staff Development Co-ordinator.) In my turn, I lent Robyn one of my favourite books on the development of leadership skills. Mentoring is definitely a “two way street” of sharing ideas and experiences, and building on them with further reading and reflection.

Expect the unexpected

In her life coaching book Life makeovers, Cheryl Richardson discusses the concept of “the magic of grace.” Her argument is that the positive changes you make in your life have a “snowball” effect, that the more you try, the more your efforts will be rewarded (sometimes from unexpected directions.) When my mentoree became motivated enough to form a professional networking group with her friends, she also found the energy to do other important things, like working on her CV and attending a new training program. Her smile became brighter and she began to look more happy and confident. A few weeks later, she was offered a new job.

Pass it on!

As I said at the beginning of this article, mentoring has given me one of my most rewarding experiences as a librarian. It has renewed my commitment to our profession, and given me more incentive to “pass on” whatever knowledge and experience I have gained in my twenty years in the workforce. Similarly, I now have the pleasure of seeing my lovely mentoree involved in the informal peer mentoring that is such a valuable part of the “new librarians” networking group that she co-founded. And you can do this, too: join a mentoring program, share your experiences, help other people in your field – and make our profession an even more successful, rewarding and satisfying one to belong to!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fisher, Biddy. “Do as I do: mentoring developments” Record 99 (10) Oct. 1997 http://www.la-hq.org.uk/directory/record/r199710/fisher.html

Richardson, Cheryl. Life Makeovers (London : Bantam, c2000)

Ritchie, Ann & Genoni, Paul. My Mentoring Diary: a resource for the library and information professions (Canberra : AIMA Training and Consultancy Services, 2000)

[1] Fisher, Biddy. “Do as I do: mentoring developments” Record 99 (10) Oct. 1997

About the Author:

Jennifer Osborn is Staff Development Co-ordinator and a Reference Librarian at the University of Adelaide Library in South Australia. She gained her qualifications (B.A. Hons., Grad. Dip. Lib. St.) in 1982, has worked in special, public and academic libraries since then and has never ceased to learn from her friends and colleagues in the library and information professions.

Article published September 2003

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.

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