I have been involved in mentoring for many years, and I continue to be amazed by its influence on individual growth, both personally and professionally. When executed effectively, it can be transformative for everyone involved!

Ideally, mentoring embodies a relationship that encourages mutual learning and development, with the potential to change perspectives. At its best, it is a democratic process—a shared experience between professionals, where the focus is not on trying to change a person, but on creating the right environment for growth. That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? So why is mentoring often something organisations simply pay lip service to? A nice-to-have, so long as it doesn’t create too much work or cost anything to implement.

In my experience mentoring fails to be effective when it is treated as a standalone activity, lacking support from the surrounding context. There might be a ‘mentor programme’ where mentors and mentees are paired, often without much consideration for their personalities, experience, or availability. Furthermore, the training provided to mentors can be superficial or trivial, concentrating on procedural aspects like paperwork and seldom providing any new insights for the mentors themselves. This creates a demotivating environment for everyone involved.

For mentoring to work its magic, both mentors and mentees must be encouraged to flourish and that requires the right framework. This might be provided by adopting a particular model of mentoring, or by having an underpinning philosophy to drive mentoring activity. As a minimum, it requires an understanding of the key principles of mentoring, which for me can be summarised as follows:

Mentoring …

· Is a relationship based on trust and mutual respect

· Encourages learning through empowerment

· Has a focus on change which supports individual development

· Is based on ethical practice that safeguards all participants

Add your own thoughts to this list. The key message here is that whatever foundation your choose, mentoring is not a one way street!