need a mentor

Nicci Columbine is a freelance journalist and writer of features on leadership, socio-economic and business sector development, organisational and change management, empowerment, gender issues, coaching & mentoring, as well as travel in Africa. Her work has been published in several South African business magazines, including Business in Africa, Enterprise, Professional Management Review.africa, and in the first edition of Enterprising Women:10 Years On, an annual directory publication focussing on women’s empowerment in South Africa. She is further involved with special interest publications, including Agenda – an African feminist media organisation, as a mentor and coach faciliating leadership and skills development, and with community based organisations such as Twilight Children in Hillbrow. She is also owner of her own communications consultancy, focusing on strategic, tactical, and applied communications interventions and solutions for organisations and communities undergoing change.

Traditionally mentoring relationships are forged through contacts outside the workplace and evolve through discussion or random meetings. Workplace mentoring programmes are more formal arrangements that involve an agreement between the mentor and mentee and follow a schedule to monitor progress towards achieving specific goals. To be successful, these programmes should follow selection criteria for both potential partners, facilitate productive matches and include follow-up sessions with a peer member. It is also recommended that mentors be trained and coached to ensure that they retain an objective perspective in the process. Says Caryn Conidaris,

co-ordinator of the BWA’s Mentoring Matching programme ‘Using the Quick Connections’ (similar to speed dating) methodology, not only matches mentors with mentees, but empowers women to use mentoring as a tool for their own development. It places the responsibility for their personal development in their own hands, and a number of the women involved have gone on to arrange mentoring relationships additional to

August 2011 | Management Today 75