Mentor’s Program
ICF Leadership is looking forward to receiving Applications for the 2010 Mentoring Program. In order to participate as a Mentee, you must be a member of ICF-OC. We also welcome seasoned coaches who would like to apply to Mentor less experienced coaches. Participating in a mentoring program can greatly accelerate your success in coaching clients and in establishing your practice niche. Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to have experienced coaches offer their time and expertise for 6 months.
If you have questions, please contact Frumi Rachel Barr. Mentoring Director at 949-729-1577.
Mission of the ICF OC Mentoring Program:
To draw on the valuable knowledge and expertise of experienced coaches within ICF OC to accelerate the learning and practice development of less experienced and new coaches through mentoring.
To Be a Mentor you must:
1) Be a member of ICF OC. You must have a proven track record of success
2) Have at least 3 years experience as a coach.
3) Be a good listener, be proactive and have a proven track record.
4) Be committed to the success of your coaching relationship and hold all conversations between you and your mentee with confidentiality
5) Commit to the time requirements (2-3 hours/month)
6) Complete the application form.
7) Attend a 90 minute Mentor Training.
To Be a Mentee You Must:
1) Be a member of ICF OC.
2) Complete the application form.
3) Be committed to the success of your coaching relationship and hold all conversations between you and your mentee with confidentiality
5) Sign an agreement of commitment based on the arrangements you make with your Mentor
6) You must attend a 90 minute Mentee Training.
What is mentoring?
A mentor is a wise and trusted counselor and guide. In “traditional” corporations an executive or senior person is assigned a “high potential” to assist in his or her development. A Mentor has a body of knowledge that a Mentee would like to learn. Coaching within the context of a mentoring relationship has to do with the skill of helping an individual fill a particular knowledge gap by learning how to do things more effectively. While coaching is always a part of mentoring, coaching does not always involve mentoring.
The Mentor and Mentee form a partnership in which:
1. Learning is the fundamental process and primary purpose of mentoring. The most effective mentoring occurs when it is learner-centered. The learner (Mentee) plays an active role in the learning. The Mentor’s role is one of the “guide on the side.”
2. Self-learning is essential to the mentoring process. Without a Mentor’s commitment to personal learning, the potential effectiveness of the learning relationship is greatly reduced.
3. A four-phase process describes the mentoring process: Preparing, Negotiating, Enabling, and Closure.
The Four Phases of the Mentoring Process
Phase 1: Preparing: Due to the unique nature of each mentoring relationship, both Mentor and Mentee must prepare individually and in partnership. Mentors explore personal motivation and their readiness to be a mentor. They assess their mentoring skills to identify areas for their own learning and development. Clarity about both expectation and role is essential for establishing a productive mentoring relationship. Preparing is also a discovery process.
Phase 2: Negotiating: Negotiating is described as the “business phase” of the mentoring relationship – the time where mentoring partners come to agreement on learning goals and define the content and process of the relationship. It is not as simple as drawing up an agreement. A key part is the conversation that leads up to it, when the ground rules for moving the relationship forward are developed. The negotiating phase has more to do with creating a shared understanding about assumptions, expectations, goals, and needs than actually putting a formal agreement in writing. It also involves talking about some of the “soft” issues in a relationship – topics like confidentiality, boundaries, and limits, which often are left out of mentoring conversations because the partners find these issues difficult to talk about. Finally, negotiating includes the “details”- when and how to meet, responsibilities, criteria for success, accountability, and bringing the relationship to closure are mutually articulated during this phase.
Phase 3: Enabling: This phase takes the longest to complete because it is the implementation phase of the learning relationship. It is a complex phase because although it offers the greatest opportunity for nurturing learning and development, the mentoring partners are also most vulnerable to myriad obstacles that can contribute to a derailment of the relationship. Even when goals are clearly articulated, the process well defined, and the milestones identified, every relationship must find its own path. The enabling phase is a process of path building: maintaining a sufficient level of trust to develop the quality of the mentoring relationship and promote learning. Effective communication is key. The Mentor’s role during this phase is to nurture the Mentee’s growth by establishing and maintaining an open and affirming learning climate and providing thoughtful, timely, candid, and constructive feedback.
Phase 4: Coming to Closure: This is an evolutionary process that has a beginning (establishing closure protocols when setting up a mentoring agreement), a middle (anticipating and addressing obstacles along the way), and an end (ensuring that there has been positive learning, no matter what the circumstances). All three components are necessary for satisfactory closure. Closure involves evaluating, acknowledging, and celebrating achievement of learning outcomes. It is beneficial for the Mentee, and for the Mentor.
