An extract from
EFFECTIVE MENTORING

What is Mentoring?

I have frequently been asked to explain mentoring and in particular to clarify the distinction between mentoring and managing, coaching and counselling. I have done this by describing mentoring in three ways:

• A mentoring arena is the space that is established each time we agree to mentor somebody: the space in which a mentoring transaction takes place. I make the distinction between arena and transaction because there are many different kinds of mentoring transaction: sometimes we give advice, some-times we coach, sometimes we just listen, sometimes we give feedback, sometimes we challenge, sometimes we counsel. Each of these specific transactions can legitimately occur in the mentoring arena. A mentoring relationship allows this arena to become more clearly defined, to develop and to mature.



• A mentoring transaction is one in which the mentor helps the person they are mentoring. It may signal the beginning of a mentoring relationship, but if it doesn't, in my view, it still qualifies as mentoring. I stress this because I believe that most people mentor others to some extent - and this valuable natural activity tends to be undervalued because it doesn't take place within the framework of a mentoring relationship. Managers, for example, are frequently having mentoring transactions with the people they manage, even though it may not be appropriate or useful for them to engage in a mentoring relationship with them.



• A mentoring relationship is made up of a series of mentoring transactions, but these take place within the framework of a substantial relationship, in the knowledge that there will be future transactions and that the relationship will develop through those transactions. The development of the relationship is a key element in the process - for as it develops, it can affect the range of issues and the depth to which they are addressed in the specific transactions.

The Function of the Mentoring Arena

Although the mentoring arena can be established within the framework of a long relationship or a short transaction, what should occur in that arena can be given a single definition. There are many way of defining the function of mentoring. Here is the one that I use now.

When we offer or agree to mentor another person, we are offering to: