6 ways to re-imagine mentoring
Mentoring doesn't have to be an old guy passing his knowledge onto a keen young wannabe.
There are other ways of doing it:
- 2 way mentoring
- Peer mentoring
- Facilitated group mentoring
- Peer group mentoring
- Team mentoring
- Reverse mentoring
Most of these should be self-eveident. If they're not, click here to download an overview.
Linking lawyers with other lawyers not only frees up our workload, but it also provides a source credibility we cannot hope to match, even if we're ex-lawyers ourselves. It does mean that we need to build up the bench strength of mentoring skills, but as someone who spends over 60% of his time teaching sales skills, I can assure you that the skills are just as valuable when chatting to clients. This means that our coaching & mentoring skills programmes can be badged as bus dev programmes, and hence get greater traction.
An added twist is the realisation that Gen Y love feedback & love being mentored (no surprise there) but that it doesn't need to be face-to-face. The mash-up between social networks (Facebook, Linkedin etc) & new forms of mentoring provide different ways to facilitate group learning. You don't need to get everyone in the same room - not even on video or audio link. Instant Messaging works fine, and when suplemented with some webcasting technology provides outstanding opportunities at little cost.
In fact this blog post may even cut down my workflow. So ignore the above. Phone me and offer work!
