What is Professional Career Mentoring?
We all go through moments in our professional careers when situations of doubts, insecurities, anxieties, the desire to change, the need to accelerate professional growth, the need to take the next step, to change careers, arise - to a lesser or greater extent, among others.
Normally, in situations like these, the first people we turn to are the closest: friends, family, relatives or even co-workers.
But there are other possibilities. One of them is precisely to seek a Professional Career Mentoring program.
A mentor is a professional with experience in one or more areas of activity, who, in addition to technical knowledge and experience in the areas, has developed and adopted a program to advise other professionals to deal with the challenges and possibilities of their career. This program, unlike more traditional courses and training, is carried out on an individual basis, with an exclusive focus on the professional's situations.
The most common ways of mentoring are those that take place internally in the company and also those offered by professional mentors.
Both are very interesting and recommended. However, the mentoring offered by companies is more focused on the development of professionals for the environment in which they are inserted, that is, within the company itself. In addition, it is usually offered to a specific and reduced group of employees. Mentoring with a professional mentor, on the other hand, offers broader advice, with no restriction on company or sector, and can be hired by all those who are interested.
Are mentoring and coaching programs the same?
Mentoring and coaching have different purposes. The coaching program is aimed at the individual's personal and professional development. Through practical actions, he prepares himself to obtain better performance. In mentoring, the more experienced professional advises the one with less experience and is focused exclusively on career development.
What are the 5 main stages of Professional Career Mentoring?
1 - Study of the mentee's profile and signature of a contract with a confidentiality agreement.
Career mentoring begins even before the first session between mentor and mentee. As soon as the mentor identifies the mentee's real interest in the program, he prepares to study the mentee's profile and provides the mentoring contract, with the basic rules for the number, format and product of the sessions. This contract may or may not contain the term of confidentiality. If not, the mentor needs to provide it as a second document, guaranteeing the secrecy of the information exchanged by both.
2 - Identify the mentee's needs.
From the first session, the professional needs of the mentee are explored. The mentor helps the mentee to be more clear about these needs, identifying precisely the points where he can contribute with suggestions and opinions.
3 - Definition of the mentee's objectives and goals.
Once the needs are identified, the mentor will assist the mentee in defining their professional objectives and goals, with greater focus on the next step in their career. The ideal is that the goals are what we call SMART, an acronym that in Portuguese would be translated to: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and with a definition of time.
4 - Definition of the action plan.
With goals and objectives defined, the next step is to create an action plan to achieve them. This is one of the stages where the mentor manages to add more value to the mentee, as he is more experienced and has already navigated "similar seas" in the past. However, it is very important for the mentor to keep up to date on his area of expertise and also on the market in general, because with each passing day changes occur more quickly.
5 - Evaluation and suggestions for adjustments.
With the action plan defined, the mentee will be able to proceed with the established activities. The mentor usually also assists in approaching possible personas (target audience with which the mentee will approach, such as area managers, recruiters, businessmen, among others) and, after some activities put into practice, can also evaluate performance , suggesting adjustments.
Once the mentee feels sure of the actions to be followed and confident to put them into practice, we have the possibility of ending the program. He can choose to extend the program for periodic maintenance with the mentor, or even resume the program from the emergence of new needs.