Pursuit of long-term career objectivesMentoring
Approach
Our approach to mentoring focuses on a continued career and personal development engagement that partners a current government employee (the mentee) with a highly experienced public or private sector senior manager (the mentor). The focus of both the mentee and the mentor is to establish a professionally-rooted relationship, dedicated to the lasting development, growth and success of the mentee. Mentoring is a partnership in which the mentee shares their experiences, aspirations and concerns in confidence, and in turn, the mentor shares their experience-based guidance, knowledge and advice. Mentoring can strengthen the mentee’s skillsets to positively impact their personal and professional growth and success.
Are mentoring and coaching the same?
No, although related, they have a different focus. Coaching is direct and purpose-driven, which takes a functional approach. Mentoring is long term goal and career skills oriented, which takes a relational approach.
What does a mentor do?
- Focuses on the mentee’s total development
- Facilitates the mentee’s growth by sharing resources and networks
- Teaches the mentee about specific issues as they arise
- Creates a safe learning environment for taking risks
- Encourages the mentee to look beyond his/her current role
- Offers ongoing feedback, sincere advice and situational guidance
Mentoring characteristics
- Focuses on the long-term professional development, including careers that may be outside a mentee’s area of work
- Mentoring relationship provides both professional and personal support
- Mentoring relationship crosses job boundaries
- Mentoring relationship can be initiated by a mentee or created through a match initiated by the organization
- Mentoring relationship may last for a specific period of time in a formal program (nine months to a year); however may continue in an informal mentoring relationship
Process and Commitments
GC organization
- Commits to mentorship as enriching support for individual career development.
- Reviews preferences and approves a mentor.
- Approves mentor hours (acknowledging that some of this time will be allocated to mentor’s preparation and review).
- Defines time parameters for tasks that the mentor can assign to the mentee (i.e. research, practice interviews, etc.)
Mentee
- Reviews list of available mentors and express preferences to management.
- Makes availability known and is available at agreed- upon times.
- Defines frequency of meetings based on approved hours, and defines meeting format (online, email, phone, in person).
- Defines what successful mentorship means in terms of mentee’s requirements.
- Discusses what a successful mentorship means during first meeting to ensure mutual agreement about the goals and expectations of the mentoring partnership.
Mentor
- Makes availability known and is available at agreed- upon times.
- Defines frequency of meetings based on approved hours, and defines meeting format (online, email, phone, in person).
- Discusses what a successful mentorship means during first meeting to ensure mutual agreement about the goals and expectations of the mentoring partnership.
- Assigns appropriate work to mentee, suggests other types of learning experiences, and provides guidance and honest feedback.
- Ensures confidentiality with mentee.
All discussions are private and not discussed with anyone outside of partnership (colleagues, supervisors, or management), except with explicit permission from the mentee.
Programs
Change management
Focus on how to prepare to successfully adopt change.
Individual change management
- The experience
- Strategic thinking
- Planning for change
- Learning plans
- Messaging for change
- Transforming and transitioning
Organization change management
- Identifying ‘who’ and ‘how’
- What will change
- Planning for transition
- Governance and the impact of change
Role after obtaining a new position
Focus on what happens after getting the job:
How to transition to a role with more responsibility
- Managing your new role
- Managing your new team
- People skills: How to communicate with staff and management
- Active listening
- Open door negotiating and collaborating with peers
Developing a capacity and capability plan
- Examining your staff’s skills
- Planning staff training
- Identifying gaps, and requirements for consultants
Management in a Government context
Cover the most commonly used GC processes and how to apply them:
- Human resource management
- People management
- Financial management
- Procurement
- Security management
- Service management
- Communications
Career Development
Focuses on the means and methods:
- Planning for ongoing career development
- Reflection and self-evaluation
- Exploring career options
- Decision making and goal setting
Get in touch
We will visit you any time to discuss and understand your specific challenges.