The traditional view of a Mentor is that of a wise older person offering advice and counsel to a younger less experienced person. The origin goes back to Homer's Odyssey with the goddess Athene taking the form of an old, wise and bearded man looking after the prince Telemachus. Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings displayed characteristics of having strange powers and expertise in many things and seemed to leave his charge to 'get on with it', appearing to help just when needed.
In recent times, ‘a mentor’ has sometimes been appointed, sometimes sought out and sometimes ‘found’ by those working among the complexities of the modern organisation. Few people could expect to ‘get by’ let alone ‘get on’ in modern organisational life without some form of detached and thoughtful assistance. Learning to ‘reflect upon practice’ (something any mentor must be able to help others do and know how to do for themselves) is generally regarded as one of the critical features of successful practice in any field.
To take up a role in the development of another person is therefore to recognise there are certain responsibilities and implied obligations.
Although 'mentoring schemes' are often used by organisations to enable people to learn from the person (mentor) who has experience, skills and knowledge, they are not always successful. It is one thing to identify people who have the skills and understandings required (though far from easy). It is another to ‘match’ good working partnerships. Finding just what is regarded as valuable and of use to assist a younger person who has been marked as having potential for becoming a 'high flier', for example, is not straightforward. Some organisations use mentoring to assist newcomers find their way into an organisation and learn 'the way we do things here'. In other words - showing people the ropes and helping to climb them. And in some organisations the term 'mentoring' is used as a covert term to hide the fact that those 'being mentored' are suffering from under-performance or are otherwise at risk.
The use of the same term for such different forms of ‘assistance’ does not help. It is important to get a proper understanding how the term is being employed in whatever setting mentoring is being applied.
The traditional view of one person passing on their greater wisdom and knowledge to another may now be a long way from what is actually taking place.
Change in Organisations
Organisations have developmental phases and as organisational development moves into the more radical areas of ‘organisational transformation,’ mentoring will take on a more significant and vital role in the success of the whole enterprise, rather than be something set aside for the chosen few.
In the last decade a view of mentoring from Julie Hay (1995) is that of 'Transformational Mentoring' in which she talks about a 'Developmental Alliance' for changing organisational cultures.
The Developmental Alliance is an Oasis Press publication which covers this area in more detail.
