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Mentoring – what’s the buzz?

August 24, 2016
 - Tim Hardman

Want a conversation to warm your heart and lift your spirits? Ask the person you with about who most influenced their lives and/or career. You will always get story about how a very special individual helped them transition from one stage of their life to another. A second, and sometimes a third story often follow the first.

Recognised or not, this person was most likely serving as a mentor. Although the word ‘mentor’ tends to be associated with development of young people, academic achievement and career-building, they can appear (and make an impact) at any time in a person’s life. The roots of mentorship are lost in antiquity, though echoed in the principles of traditional apprenticeships. The term was inspired by the character of Mentor from Homer’s Odessey (circa. 700 bc). A close friend of Ulysses, king of Ithaca, Mentor took on the responsibility of training and teaching Ulysses’ 2-year old son, Telemachus. Mentor provided Telemachus with paternal love, wisdom, support and academic tutoring for 20 years.

I fondly remember the many mentors I have been guided by over the last half a century. It started with my father, who taught me that you only get out of something what you put in, to Barry McDiarmid, who taught me that hard work can be fun and Harry Kelly, who taught me that growth often requires commitment and pain. There are a myriad of other characters, each imparting their time and knowledge. The picture above shows me and my dad shortly after he had helped me produce my first Niche company brochure when I was setting up the company almost 20 years ago. It was a great day, he had just proven to me that the best laid plans can always benefit from extra scrutiny.

Many ‘management’ books have promoted the benefits of formalised types of mentoring, employing diverse terms such as structural mentorship, flash mentoring and supervisory mentoring, and advocates being encouraged to establish ‘contracts’ between the mentor and the mentored (or protégé). Although this most likely serves to minimise misunderstanding of commitment on either side and (subsequent) disappointment it does rather feel (to this somewhat anachronistic mentoree) as though it goes beyond the original ‘freely offered and gratefully accepted’ concept. Could it be that in this day and age that mentorship is just another commodity to be bought and sold.

We all appreciate the benefits to the student, but a great deal has also been written about the positive benefits that mentors themselves can get out of the relationship. Some mentors simply believe in the person they are helping and want to see them succeed. Others look at mentorship as a way of passing on their knowledge and leaving a legacy. Some mentors just like the challenge. They enjoy talking about what know and their experience and having someone looking up to them. And yes, some people use it to make money.

There is one additional, less egotistical motivation perhaps. We are all students of life, serving our apprenticeship and learning our trades – even in the current multi-path career environment. Once we have absorbed the basic skills of our trade we move from apprentice to journeyman – ready to ply our trade in the wider world. Eventually, we will set down to a hearth of our own, ready to make the final step to master of our craft. But no one truly achieves confidence in their own mastery until they have passed the ‘secrets’ of their craft on to the next generation.

Kid yourself as much as you like, but no man is an island. Might I suggest that absence of this aspect of your work be fostering a feeling of emptiness and lack of job satisfaction? You might even question whether mentorship suffered in the face of formalised employee development plans, defined managerial infrastructures and the endless encouragement for managers to become leaders? I contest that it remains a very valid tool in the process of ‘people development’ and it is not the sole preserve of professional life coaches and consultants. We should all be prepared to repay the past favours of others.

Obviously, not every experience you hear about may be positive, I myself can name several unhappy ‘relationships’, but time is the great leveller. Even in those cases where the chemistry has failed spectacularly, once the anger of disappointment and frustration have passed I guarantee that the mentored will say “but the experience taught me this…”. And surely that's the whole point.

About the author

Tim Hardman
Managing Director
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Dr Tim Hardman is Managing Director of Niche Science & Technology Ltd., a bespoke services CRO based in the UK. He also serves as Managing Director at Thromboserin Ltd., an early-stage biotechnology company. Dr Hardman is a keen scientist and an occasional commentator on all aspects of medicine, business and the process of drug development.

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