Mentoring is an increasingly recognised method of developing employees and companies,
and is drawn on by mature business organisations.

Professional mentoring is an element of building an organisation that “learns itself”. In this context, transferring knowledge and good practice, and being open to sharing one’s own, often difficult experience, play a key role in the process of developing an organisation.

The purpose of mentoring is to expand the knowledge, competences and experience of people employed in the company at various organisational levels.

For experienced employees, bosses, people enjoying success and leaders, mentoring offers a way of using their knowledge and experience in non-business ways. It also provides an opportunity for self-development in the area of consciously, effectively supporting others along their path as professionals.

For younger employees, it is a chance to consciously develop their own career path, to develop their potential and talents, and at the same time learn to take responsibility for their choices and decisions.

ON BEING A MENTOR

There comes a time for everyone when you’ve had enough “good advice”. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And yet we’re constantly handing out “good advice”. Mentoring is not about giving good advice, but about a relationship between partners who respect each other. About a Master-Student relationship in which each side feels needed, and from which both sides are enriched.

While carrying out our daily duties, we all become a mentor at times. The School of Business Mentors was created to approach mentoring wisely and consciously, in a way that draws on each person’s strengths and potential.

It’s sometimes that case that, though we’d like to be a mentor, we’re not convinced we’re cut out for the role. We might think that, to be a mentor, you have to be someone exceptional, some kind of perfect “sage”. But it’s not like that. During the course, step by step, we help you cross any barriers that come up on your path to becoming a mentor. We show you how to use your knowledge and experience to serve your student.

To become a professional mentor, you also need to be skilled at working in a process that is spread over time. In that process, the mentor accompanies the student and guides them through the successive steps in reaching their goals. Conducting the mentoring process professionally requires competences related to the implementation of mentoring goals. You can learn those competences. At the School of Mentors, you will gain knowledge about the principles of conducting the mentoring process, will expand your mentoring competences, and will acquire tools that support you in your work. 

As trainers, we start from the assumption that the foundations of good mentoring are: 

• freedom – taking on the role of Master or Student consciously and voluntarily
• openness – a readiness of the Master and Student to learn
• humility – an awareness of the imperfection of Master and Student
• acknowledgment – a readiness to accept differences that separate Master and Student

Mentoring is harmonious cooperation in three fields:

Knowledge, Experience, Empathy