Importance Of Good Practice In Workplace Mentoring
Understanding Good Practice in Workplace Mentoring
I am a Watch Manger at Crewe Community Fire Station in Cheshire. I have spent 3 years in Operational Training Group and I am competent in an Operational and training role. I now need to mentor my team and Fire cadets within the organisation. There are also new firefighters that I will mentor, our phase two firefighters.
Mentoring is one of the important and essential skills for leadership and management. First of all we need to define what Mentoring is?
According to Wikipedia mentoring definition is
“Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional …show more content…
development; mentoring entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and during a sustained period of time, between a person who is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less (the protégé)".
Another definition is
“A mentor opens a space in their life for another to step into.
A mentor is there”.
Danielle Carey
Understanding the context for effective workplace mentoring
Describe and define the purpose of workplace mentoring (16 marks)
Workplace mentoring is a learning partnership between employees for purposes of sharing technical information, institutional knowledge and insight with respect to a particular occupation, profession, organization or endeavour. Mentoring is perhaps best described as a developmental process - dynamic and unique to each person. Informal mentoring relationships may develop in the work setting when a more seasoned employee takes a new employee “under his/her wing.” Formal mentoring programs allow organizations to create and nurture those relationships by matching more experienced employees (mentors) with less experienced employees (mentees) to meet specific agency objectives while helping those individuals in the mentoring relationship to identify and develop their own talents.
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service recognise the importance of having the right staff, with the right skills in the right place at the right time. Mentors are recognised as key activities for developing individual performance and benefit individuals who require support within their current role or to help them develop their career.
The coaching and mentoring framework has been introduced to strengthen the culture of supported learning and development and maximising team, individual and organisational performance.
All Line Managers, whether green, grey, white or gold book, have a responsibility for developing their staff and providing feedback. Coaching and mentoring offer opportunities to develop and support staff, and as such, all managers are expected to demonstrate their commitment to coaching and mentoring.
All documentation relating to the framework in subject to the Data Protection Act, and therefore, these principles need to be available to and adhered to by all staff.
Explain the role, remit and responsibilities of an effective workplace mentor (16 marks)
An effective mentor needs to help the mentee identify with their organization and professional environment. This being and understanding his goals that they want to achieve. They must be prepared to help the mentee through difficult situations and help the mentee find there own solutions to the problems. Work with the mentee to develop his/her self-confidence; ensure communications are clear, open and reciprocal. With this help this will help develop creative and independent thinking.
With all aspects of data the mentor must maintain confidentiality. Documentation Written guidelines explain we need to explain the goals of the program, the basic principles of mentoring and the specific process of mentoring within the agency
Mentor and mentee should discuss things like
Contact and response times
Meetings
Confidentiality
Focus
Feedback
Goals and accountability
Describe the knowledge, skills and behaviour of an effective workplace mentor (12 marks)
Develop mutually agreeable goals for the mentoring relationship that are
Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
Assignable – specify who will do it.
Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
Communicate openly and honestly with the mentee. It 's also a great way to get your mentee to think through situations themselves and draw out the consequences of the various choices or courses of action they can take. During these conversations, you can share your wisdom, without making decisions for your mentee. That 's their job
Take responsibility for establishing expectations between the mentor and mentee; make good use of time spent with the mentee. Be mindful of the mentee’s needs and expectations
Be trustworthy and maintain confidentiality. The best mentors I 've encountered have been people that have credibility in, and have personally achieved success in, the area where I 'm looking for support. For this reason, most people will seek the guidance of different mentors to help them develop specific skills or qualities, or to help them reach important decisions.
Come from their own thinking, with the help of your wisdom to support them. Offer your advice, but only if your mentee asks for it. It can be very tempting for a mentor to just jump in and offer advice before a mentee has actually asked for it, especially when you 've dealt with a similar situation yourself. Being a sounding board for your mentee, allowing them to discuss the situation with you, then helping them to think through the situation by asking them questions to draw out the consequences of various actions, is always more empowering for a mentee than advising them what to do. It helps them work through the issue and come to their own conclusions. By doing so, you ultimately help them to learn to think through issues themselves and trust their own judgement, both valuable life skills.
General check list for any future Mentor
Genuine interest
Sensitivity to other’s needs and development
Excellent listening skills
Commitment
Confidentiality
Excellent coaching and feedback skills
Explain what a workplace mentoring contract should include to ensure a quality, ethical mentoring relationship (12 marks)
Just as every mentoring relationship is dynamic and unique, formal mentoring programs are likely to differ substantially between agencies and occupations. By way of example, a mentoring program designed to enhance the recruitment and retention of Civil Engineers is bound to look very different from one intended to improve the quality of psychiatric nursing, or one developed to provide newly hired human services personnel with the skills, information and experiences they need to successfully manage an active caseload. While there may not be a “one-size-fits-all” program appropriate to, there are some basic elements that should be incorporated into every mentoring program
Identification of desired outcomes Establishment of clear goals for the program
Assessment of the mentoring climate, including commitment, cultural readiness, resources and access
“Buy-In” by management, participants and key stakeholders
Marketing the program
Matching mentors with mentees
Training
Program Maintenance
Program evaluation
Reflect on Characteristics of effective mentors and what they may consider
I Will
Be honest, confidential. I will do my upmost for the mentee. Strive for excellence. Be Timely and realistic
I Will Not
Break integrity, break confidentiality and I will not be unprofessional
I Can Do
My Best. What the organisation wants. Being motivated and use my experience.
I Cannot Do
Do the job for the mentee and promise what I cannot deliver
Understanding the process and content of effective workplace mentoring
Explain how a model of mentoring can be used to manage a workplace mentoring relationship (12 marks)
The model above is from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) “Coaching and Mentoring Framework” and that helps with equality working in a diverse workforce, nature of values and attitudes and potential for abuse in the mentoring process in the service. In the frame work the term of mentee is used for the learner/individual who is being mentored.
Things that need to asked and understood from the being to the end
Getting involved
Mentee needs to ask why they want to work with a mentor?
What they hope to achieve from the relationship?
How does the mentee see how the mentoring progress will work?
How often do you want to meet/have contact?
Is there anything I need to be aware of (e.g. any special needs etc)
How will you know that the mentoring has been successful?
Getting to Know Each Other
Ask about career history to date
What’s the current role?
What hopes for the future?
Why are you interested in X?
What are your strengths?
What do you want /need to develop?
What are the mentee’s career goals?
Where and when do you want to meet next?
What action are we going to take before the next meeting?
Working Together
What are your objectives for this meeting?
What have you been doing since our last meeting?
What successes and/or difficulties have you encountered?
How have you handled the difficulties?
What are you going to do next?
Learning Together
What have you learned since our last meeting?
How does that help you move towards your career goals?
What else do you need to do?
What unanswered questions do you still have about X?
Evaluating Together
What have you learned since out last meeting?
If you were to start the mentoring process again, what might you do differently?
If you were to start the mentoring process again, what would you like to see the mentor do differently?
To what extent are you closer to fulfilling your career goals?
What’s next?
Saying Goodbye
How do you maintain contact in the future, if at all?
Explain the range of tools and techniques (including diagnostic tools and those exploring learning preferences) that can be used to support effective workplace mentoring (12 marks)
In the early 1970s, Kolb and Ron Fry (now both at the Weatherhead School of Management) developed the Experiential Learning Model (ELM), composed of four elements:
Concrete experience,
Observation of and reflection on that experience,
Formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection,
Testing the new concepts, (repeat).
These four elements are the essence of a spiral of learning that can begin with any one of the four elements, but typically begins with a concrete
Learning Style Inventory
Kolb is renowned in educational circles for his Learning Style Inventory (LSI). His model is built upon the idea that learning preferences can be described using two continuums: active experimentation-reflective observation and abstract conceptualization-concrete experience. The result is four types of learners: converger (active experimentation-abstract conceptualization), accommodator (active experimentation-concrete experience), assimilator (reflective observation-abstract conceptualization), and diverger (reflective observation-concrete experience). The LSI is designed to determine an individual 's learning preference
Honey and Mumford 's learning cycle
Reflector - Prefers to learn from activities that allow them to watch, think, and review (time to think things over) what has happened.
Likes to use journals and brainstorming. Lectures are helpful if they provide expert explanations and analysis.
Theorist - Prefer to think problems through in a step-by-step manner. Likes lectures, analogies, systems, case studies, models, and readings. Talking with experts is normally not helpful.
Pragmatist - Prefers to apply new learning’s to actual practice to see if they work. Likes laboratories, field work, and observations. Likes feedback, coaching, and obvious links between the task-on-hand and a problem.
Activist - Prefers the challenges of new experiences, involvement with others, assimilation and role-playing. Likes anything new, problem solving, and small group …show more content…
discussions.
SWOT
A SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or in a business venture.
A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieve that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. The degree to which the internal environment of the firm matches with the external environment is expressed by the concept of strategic fit.
Setting the objective should be done after the SWOT analysis has been performed. This would allow achievable goals or objectives to be set for the organization.
Strengths: characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over others.
Weaknesses: characteristics that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others
Opportunities: elements that the project could exploit to its
advantage
Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project
Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective.
First, the decision makers should consider whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is not attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated.
Users of SWOT analysis need to ask and answer questions that generate meaningful information for each category (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to make the analysis useful and find their competitive advantage.
Core Values
Within Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service we have six Core Values to that. Two of those core values are showing us that equality and diversity is for everyone in the work force. First one is developing and respecting our people which mean valuing our people and constantly developing their diverse range of talents, learning from all that we do. Second one is promoting equality and diversity which mean embracing diversity and finding ways to improve our services and the safety and prospects for individuals and communities.
The coaching and mentoring framework has been introduced to strengthen the culture of supported learning and development and maximising team, individual and organisational performance with help of core values.
The other four core values are aiming for excellence, delivering our promise, putting customers first and working together.
Mentoring is recognised in our organisation as one of the key activity for developing individual performance and benefit individuals who require support within their current role or to help them develop within their career. That will help to strengthen the culture of supported learning and development and maximising team, individual and organisational performance.
The Personal Qualities and Attributes – PQAs
The National Point of Entry selection procedure asks potential trainee’s to complete a detailed application form, which will be assessed against National Personal Qualities and Attributes (PQA).
If you want to move to a new role or indeed join the Fire Service, it would be unreasonable to expect you to know everything about that new job or role in advance. Instead, your personal qualities and attributes can be measured to see if you have the potential to carry out the new role. These PQAs cover your ability to work with others, to act appropriately in conflict situations, to be part of a team and to communicate effectively. Because they measure your behaviour, they are also known as Behavioural Indicators.
This measurement of your potential is normally carried out at an Assessment Development Centre (ADC) or in the case of new recruits, at training centres and interviews during the selection procedure.
The Mentor and mentee would work together to gain the skills to address the PQA’s. Mainly working in conjunction with there personnel development handbook. A Personal Development Handbook (PDH) is a way of recording evidence of your achievements. It is a collection of different items of evidence which shows that you have the required skills, knowledge and understanding to support your claim to a unit and/or qualification if in development, or to demonstrate maintenance of your competence once those units/qualifications have been achieved.
Explain why it is important to maintain basic records of workplace mentoring and what these should contain (8 marks)
One of the responsibilities of the mentor is to keep records. Whilst the mentor may not be directly responsible for all of the following records, he or she may need to collect information about mentee’s, sessions, safety, accidents, venues etc. It is important how to treat this information, including not divulging it to a third party without the express approval of the mentee. Mentors also have a responsibility to the Data Protection Act (1998) that states only relevant and necessary information should be held, used only for the purposes stated, not kept for longer than required, secured in a safe place, disposed of securely, and not passed on without consent.
Keeping records can help the mentor remember any actions that were agreed, what was discussed last time and any progress made. For example, we can use spreadsheets to keep records. Another possible way to keep records is appraisals. All appraisals should be recorded. With or Phase two fire fighters we also use Monthly Performance Review Report, this is filled out and discussed with the mentee and middle manager plus a HR reprehensive.
Identify any potential barriers to workplace mentoring and explain suitable strategies to overcome these barriers (12 marks)
Lack of time: Mentoring is an investment in time and will eventually pays off when you have developed confident and motivated staff. Sometimes things do come up, but not finding time for something in the long run shows that it’s not a priority for the coach and don’t value it. The mentor must think about the message this is sending to mentee by always being too busy for them and share the responsibility for organising.
Judging: You should never use ‘weaknesses’ revealed by the mentee to form a judgement, or will quickly lose their trust. Mentoring is about openly discussing positive and negative performance and moving forward, not being judgemental.
Part of the role is to appraise the performance of the coachee, and this will be more formal than a mentoring approach.
Telling: It can be major barrier. Sometimes telling is appropriate, but a solution is far more effective and embedded if the mentee has come up with it themselves. It is also far more likely to work. It is good to be getting in the habit of not telling when mentoring hat have on.
Mentee agrees actions then does nothing: The mentor should check the mentee actually motivated by the actions and able to carry out actions. If the mentee says they never have time to complete their actions, need to challenge with saying for example “I’ve noticed that you say you want to progress, but you don’t seem to be making time to actually do what we’ve agreed. What do you think about that?”
Mentee not responsive to the Mentor: This may be because they have seen/done it before. Maybe the mentee doesn’t think coaching will work or doesn’t want it to work.
Environment: If the mentee doesn’t feel comfortable e.g. they may be in earshot of people or it may be somewhere that they can relax.
There are other objections that arise out of the course of designing, implementing and evaluating a mentoring program. I hope that the ones listed above have provided some insight into how to overcome them.
Encourage the mentee to try new behaviours and give them support they need to do so.
Respect the mentee suggestions for action and focus on past successes with what factors made them successful.
Try safer environment for the mentee.
Use precision questioning to explore all aspects of the situation being discussed.
Present the facts clearly and make time for it.
I’d like to finish by saying; it isn’t practical, realistic or feasible to offer one to one mentoring for everyone. Mentoring can be done in a group or team environment allowing the subject to cascade to the mentee. We need to develop the mentoring capability of some employees so they can adopt mentoring for their staff. Mentoring isn’t suitable for everyone or indeed every situation. An essential part of the mentoring process will be to assess whether the most appropriate option is.
Bibliography:
CFRS Service Information System “Coaching and Mentoring Framework”
CFRS ELearning “Coaching and Mentoring”
Instep “The Essence of Coaching”
Wikipedia
I am a Watch Manger at Crewe Community Fire Station in Cheshire. I have spent 3 years in Operational Training Group and I am competent in an Operational and training role. I now need to mentor my team and Fire cadets within the organisation. There are also new firefighters that I will mentor, our phase two firefighters.
Mentoring is one of the important and essential skills for leadership and management. First of all we need to define what Mentoring is?
According to Wikipedia mentoring definition is
“Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional …show more content…
development; mentoring entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and during a sustained period of time, between a person who is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less (the protégé)".
Another definition is
“A mentor opens a space in their life for another to step into.
A mentor is there”.
Danielle Carey
Understanding the context for effective workplace mentoring
Describe and define the purpose of workplace mentoring (16 marks)
Workplace mentoring is a learning partnership between employees for purposes of sharing technical information, institutional knowledge and insight with respect to a particular occupation, profession, organization or endeavour. Mentoring is perhaps best described as a developmental process - dynamic and unique to each person. Informal mentoring relationships may develop in the work setting when a more seasoned employee takes a new employee “under his/her wing.” Formal mentoring programs allow organizations to create and nurture those relationships by matching more experienced employees (mentors) with less experienced employees (mentees) to meet specific agency objectives while helping those individuals in the mentoring relationship to identify and develop their own talents.
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service recognise the importance of having the right staff, with the right skills in the right place at the right time. Mentors are recognised as key activities for developing individual performance and benefit individuals who require support within their current role or to help them develop their career.
The coaching and mentoring framework has been introduced to strengthen the culture of supported learning and development and maximising team, individual and organisational performance.
All Line Managers, whether green, grey, white or gold book, have a responsibility for developing their staff and providing feedback. Coaching and mentoring offer opportunities to develop and support staff, and as such, all managers are expected to demonstrate their commitment to coaching and mentoring.
All documentation relating to the framework in subject to the Data Protection Act, and therefore, these principles need to be available to and adhered to by all staff.
Explain the role, remit and responsibilities of an effective workplace mentor (16 marks)
An effective mentor needs to help the mentee identify with their organization and professional environment. This being and understanding his goals that they want to achieve. They must be prepared to help the mentee through difficult situations and help the mentee find there own solutions to the problems. Work with the mentee to develop his/her self-confidence; ensure communications are clear, open and reciprocal. With this help this will help develop creative and independent thinking.
With all aspects of data the mentor must maintain confidentiality. Documentation Written guidelines explain we need to explain the goals of the program, the basic principles of mentoring and the specific process of mentoring within the agency
Mentor and mentee should discuss things like
Contact and response times
Meetings
Confidentiality
Focus
Feedback
Goals and accountability
Describe the knowledge, skills and behaviour of an effective workplace mentor (12 marks)
Develop mutually agreeable goals for the mentoring relationship that are
Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
Assignable – specify who will do it.
Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
Communicate openly and honestly with the mentee. It 's also a great way to get your mentee to think through situations themselves and draw out the consequences of the various choices or courses of action they can take. During these conversations, you can share your wisdom, without making decisions for your mentee. That 's their job
Take responsibility for establishing expectations between the mentor and mentee; make good use of time spent with the mentee. Be mindful of the mentee’s needs and expectations
Be trustworthy and maintain confidentiality. The best mentors I 've encountered have been people that have credibility in, and have personally achieved success in, the area where I 'm looking for support. For this reason, most people will seek the guidance of different mentors to help them develop specific skills or qualities, or to help them reach important decisions.
Come from their own thinking, with the help of your wisdom to support them. Offer your advice, but only if your mentee asks for it. It can be very tempting for a mentor to just jump in and offer advice before a mentee has actually asked for it, especially when you 've dealt with a similar situation yourself. Being a sounding board for your mentee, allowing them to discuss the situation with you, then helping them to think through the situation by asking them questions to draw out the consequences of various actions, is always more empowering for a mentee than advising them what to do. It helps them work through the issue and come to their own conclusions. By doing so, you ultimately help them to learn to think through issues themselves and trust their own judgement, both valuable life skills.
General check list for any future Mentor
Genuine interest
Sensitivity to other’s needs and development
Excellent listening skills
Commitment
Confidentiality
Excellent coaching and feedback skills
Explain what a workplace mentoring contract should include to ensure a quality, ethical mentoring relationship (12 marks)
Just as every mentoring relationship is dynamic and unique, formal mentoring programs are likely to differ substantially between agencies and occupations. By way of example, a mentoring program designed to enhance the recruitment and retention of Civil Engineers is bound to look very different from one intended to improve the quality of psychiatric nursing, or one developed to provide newly hired human services personnel with the skills, information and experiences they need to successfully manage an active caseload. While there may not be a “one-size-fits-all” program appropriate to, there are some basic elements that should be incorporated into every mentoring program
Identification of desired outcomes Establishment of clear goals for the program
Assessment of the mentoring climate, including commitment, cultural readiness, resources and access
“Buy-In” by management, participants and key stakeholders
Marketing the program
Matching mentors with mentees
Training
Program Maintenance
Program evaluation
Reflect on Characteristics of effective mentors and what they may consider
I Will
Be honest, confidential. I will do my upmost for the mentee. Strive for excellence. Be Timely and realistic
I Will Not
Break integrity, break confidentiality and I will not be unprofessional
I Can Do
My Best. What the organisation wants. Being motivated and use my experience.
I Cannot Do
Do the job for the mentee and promise what I cannot deliver
Understanding the process and content of effective workplace mentoring
Explain how a model of mentoring can be used to manage a workplace mentoring relationship (12 marks)
The model above is from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) “Coaching and Mentoring Framework” and that helps with equality working in a diverse workforce, nature of values and attitudes and potential for abuse in the mentoring process in the service. In the frame work the term of mentee is used for the learner/individual who is being mentored.
Things that need to asked and understood from the being to the end
Getting involved
Mentee needs to ask why they want to work with a mentor?
What they hope to achieve from the relationship?
How does the mentee see how the mentoring progress will work?
How often do you want to meet/have contact?
Is there anything I need to be aware of (e.g. any special needs etc)
How will you know that the mentoring has been successful?
Getting to Know Each Other
Ask about career history to date
What’s the current role?
What hopes for the future?
Why are you interested in X?
What are your strengths?
What do you want /need to develop?
What are the mentee’s career goals?
Where and when do you want to meet next?
What action are we going to take before the next meeting?
Working Together
What are your objectives for this meeting?
What have you been doing since our last meeting?
What successes and/or difficulties have you encountered?
How have you handled the difficulties?
What are you going to do next?
Learning Together
What have you learned since our last meeting?
How does that help you move towards your career goals?
What else do you need to do?
What unanswered questions do you still have about X?
Evaluating Together
What have you learned since out last meeting?
If you were to start the mentoring process again, what might you do differently?
If you were to start the mentoring process again, what would you like to see the mentor do differently?
To what extent are you closer to fulfilling your career goals?
What’s next?
Saying Goodbye
How do you maintain contact in the future, if at all?
Explain the range of tools and techniques (including diagnostic tools and those exploring learning preferences) that can be used to support effective workplace mentoring (12 marks)
In the early 1970s, Kolb and Ron Fry (now both at the Weatherhead School of Management) developed the Experiential Learning Model (ELM), composed of four elements:
Concrete experience,
Observation of and reflection on that experience,
Formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection,
Testing the new concepts, (repeat).
These four elements are the essence of a spiral of learning that can begin with any one of the four elements, but typically begins with a concrete
Learning Style Inventory
Kolb is renowned in educational circles for his Learning Style Inventory (LSI). His model is built upon the idea that learning preferences can be described using two continuums: active experimentation-reflective observation and abstract conceptualization-concrete experience. The result is four types of learners: converger (active experimentation-abstract conceptualization), accommodator (active experimentation-concrete experience), assimilator (reflective observation-abstract conceptualization), and diverger (reflective observation-concrete experience). The LSI is designed to determine an individual 's learning preference
Honey and Mumford 's learning cycle
Reflector - Prefers to learn from activities that allow them to watch, think, and review (time to think things over) what has happened.
Likes to use journals and brainstorming. Lectures are helpful if they provide expert explanations and analysis.
Theorist - Prefer to think problems through in a step-by-step manner. Likes lectures, analogies, systems, case studies, models, and readings. Talking with experts is normally not helpful.
Pragmatist - Prefers to apply new learning’s to actual practice to see if they work. Likes laboratories, field work, and observations. Likes feedback, coaching, and obvious links between the task-on-hand and a problem.
Activist - Prefers the challenges of new experiences, involvement with others, assimilation and role-playing. Likes anything new, problem solving, and small group …show more content…
discussions.
SWOT
A SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or in a business venture.
A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieve that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. The degree to which the internal environment of the firm matches with the external environment is expressed by the concept of strategic fit.
Setting the objective should be done after the SWOT analysis has been performed. This would allow achievable goals or objectives to be set for the organization.
Strengths: characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over others.
Weaknesses: characteristics that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others
Opportunities: elements that the project could exploit to its
advantage
Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project
Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective.
First, the decision makers should consider whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is not attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated.
Users of SWOT analysis need to ask and answer questions that generate meaningful information for each category (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to make the analysis useful and find their competitive advantage.
Core Values
Within Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service we have six Core Values to that. Two of those core values are showing us that equality and diversity is for everyone in the work force. First one is developing and respecting our people which mean valuing our people and constantly developing their diverse range of talents, learning from all that we do. Second one is promoting equality and diversity which mean embracing diversity and finding ways to improve our services and the safety and prospects for individuals and communities.
The coaching and mentoring framework has been introduced to strengthen the culture of supported learning and development and maximising team, individual and organisational performance with help of core values.
The other four core values are aiming for excellence, delivering our promise, putting customers first and working together.
Mentoring is recognised in our organisation as one of the key activity for developing individual performance and benefit individuals who require support within their current role or to help them develop within their career. That will help to strengthen the culture of supported learning and development and maximising team, individual and organisational performance.
The Personal Qualities and Attributes – PQAs
The National Point of Entry selection procedure asks potential trainee’s to complete a detailed application form, which will be assessed against National Personal Qualities and Attributes (PQA).
If you want to move to a new role or indeed join the Fire Service, it would be unreasonable to expect you to know everything about that new job or role in advance. Instead, your personal qualities and attributes can be measured to see if you have the potential to carry out the new role. These PQAs cover your ability to work with others, to act appropriately in conflict situations, to be part of a team and to communicate effectively. Because they measure your behaviour, they are also known as Behavioural Indicators.
This measurement of your potential is normally carried out at an Assessment Development Centre (ADC) or in the case of new recruits, at training centres and interviews during the selection procedure.
The Mentor and mentee would work together to gain the skills to address the PQA’s. Mainly working in conjunction with there personnel development handbook. A Personal Development Handbook (PDH) is a way of recording evidence of your achievements. It is a collection of different items of evidence which shows that you have the required skills, knowledge and understanding to support your claim to a unit and/or qualification if in development, or to demonstrate maintenance of your competence once those units/qualifications have been achieved.
Explain why it is important to maintain basic records of workplace mentoring and what these should contain (8 marks)
One of the responsibilities of the mentor is to keep records. Whilst the mentor may not be directly responsible for all of the following records, he or she may need to collect information about mentee’s, sessions, safety, accidents, venues etc. It is important how to treat this information, including not divulging it to a third party without the express approval of the mentee. Mentors also have a responsibility to the Data Protection Act (1998) that states only relevant and necessary information should be held, used only for the purposes stated, not kept for longer than required, secured in a safe place, disposed of securely, and not passed on without consent.
Keeping records can help the mentor remember any actions that were agreed, what was discussed last time and any progress made. For example, we can use spreadsheets to keep records. Another possible way to keep records is appraisals. All appraisals should be recorded. With or Phase two fire fighters we also use Monthly Performance Review Report, this is filled out and discussed with the mentee and middle manager plus a HR reprehensive.
Identify any potential barriers to workplace mentoring and explain suitable strategies to overcome these barriers (12 marks)
Lack of time: Mentoring is an investment in time and will eventually pays off when you have developed confident and motivated staff. Sometimes things do come up, but not finding time for something in the long run shows that it’s not a priority for the coach and don’t value it. The mentor must think about the message this is sending to mentee by always being too busy for them and share the responsibility for organising.
Judging: You should never use ‘weaknesses’ revealed by the mentee to form a judgement, or will quickly lose their trust. Mentoring is about openly discussing positive and negative performance and moving forward, not being judgemental.
Part of the role is to appraise the performance of the coachee, and this will be more formal than a mentoring approach.
Telling: It can be major barrier. Sometimes telling is appropriate, but a solution is far more effective and embedded if the mentee has come up with it themselves. It is also far more likely to work. It is good to be getting in the habit of not telling when mentoring hat have on.
Mentee agrees actions then does nothing: The mentor should check the mentee actually motivated by the actions and able to carry out actions. If the mentee says they never have time to complete their actions, need to challenge with saying for example “I’ve noticed that you say you want to progress, but you don’t seem to be making time to actually do what we’ve agreed. What do you think about that?”
Mentee not responsive to the Mentor: This may be because they have seen/done it before. Maybe the mentee doesn’t think coaching will work or doesn’t want it to work.
Environment: If the mentee doesn’t feel comfortable e.g. they may be in earshot of people or it may be somewhere that they can relax.
There are other objections that arise out of the course of designing, implementing and evaluating a mentoring program. I hope that the ones listed above have provided some insight into how to overcome them.
Encourage the mentee to try new behaviours and give them support they need to do so.
Respect the mentee suggestions for action and focus on past successes with what factors made them successful.
Try safer environment for the mentee.
Use precision questioning to explore all aspects of the situation being discussed.
Present the facts clearly and make time for it.
I’d like to finish by saying; it isn’t practical, realistic or feasible to offer one to one mentoring for everyone. Mentoring can be done in a group or team environment allowing the subject to cascade to the mentee. We need to develop the mentoring capability of some employees so they can adopt mentoring for their staff. Mentoring isn’t suitable for everyone or indeed every situation. An essential part of the mentoring process will be to assess whether the most appropriate option is.
Bibliography:
CFRS Service Information System “Coaching and Mentoring Framework”
CFRS ELearning “Coaching and Mentoring”
Instep “The Essence of Coaching”
Wikipedia