What is Mentoring?

The role of the mentor is to listen, reflect and challenge. David Clutterbuck (a Founder of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council) is very knowledgeable on this subject and he describes a mentor as having many similarities to a coach. Both help people work towards goals by building self-awareness, strengthening motivation and providing emotional support. Mentoring has a wider spectrum of roles, including, being a sounding board, helping a mentee develop wider and better networks of information and influence — and sometimes simply being there to listen and to empathies. Coaching is typically of a much shorter duration to achieve a particular improvement goal.

The confidential nature of the relationship is of vital importance. It is the client who directs the agenda.