Being a mentor is a mutually beneficial, enriching relationship, based around sharing professional knowledge and experiences, using key skills and personal attributes, to enable colleagues to achieve their goals. Mentoring isn't about giving advice or telling the mentee to "do it the way the way I did it." It's about motivating and empowering them to progress their professional aspirations, develop their skills and knowledge, and achieve their full potential.
Mentors cannot have, and are not expected to have, all the answers. To be effective, mentors need to encourage their mentee to come up with their own solutions and, if needed, seek advice from their line manager or colleague.
Being a mentor
Would you like to inspire, guide and support someone in your field so that they reach their full potential? Would you like to pass on the benefit of your knowledge, experience and leave a legacy where that benefits others beyond the life of your career? Would you be able to allocated a few hours on a regular basis to help someone? Find out more by reading our mentor induction pack.
Having a mentor
Do you think you could achieve more in your role or your career with proper guidance? Could regular guidance and support from someone outside your organisation help you get a different perspective on things and help facilitate career development? Find out more by reading our mentee induction pack.
What's next?
Step one
Email cim@cipfa.org with your answers to these three questions:
Mentor:
- What are your key skills and experience?
- Do you consider yourself more strategic or technical?
- Have you mentored before and if so for how long? First-time mentors welcome!
Mentee:
- Why would you like a mentor? For example, to help you get to the next step in your career, support you with a specific piece of work/project, or to help you implement a particular aspect of your personal development plan?
- Would you prefer/do you think a strategic or technical mentor would be most appropriate for you?
- Have you had a mentor before, and if so, is there anything you learned or realised from that experience that you want us to take into account when matching you with a mentor?
Step two
We will match all mentor requests with mentee requests. We will then be in touch to let you know who we have matched you with so that you can have an introductory first meeting and, if appropriate, arrange your first session.
Step three
Every three months we will ask for some anonymous feedback.