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What is a Mentee? |
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| I asked that question
and after approximately three years of taking three steps forward
and four steps backwards, I came up with this definition: A
mentee is a butterfly struggling to evolve from his/her cocoon. I had been in the FAA since 1982. I had bid on numerous jobs, trying to get promoted. I had taken every class, course, or training that I could possibly get permission to take on the job or on my own to develop my skills. Nothing was working for me. I had met Dr. Frances Leach of ASW Human Resource Management several years ago. I didn't know what her job title was or what it entailed. During one of my performance evaluations, I was expressing my frustration at not being able to advance to my supervisor. He asked me if I had completed an IDP. I said no, what is it? He explained what an IDP (Individual Development Plan) was and that he had worked with several people to help them complete IDP's and they had improved their skills and been hired in other positions with promotions. I thought, this is great, I want to do it. Well, to sit down and put on paper what I wanted was not easy. I gave it to my supervisor and he gave it back to me, we eventually worked on it until it came out satisfactory to both of us. It was a good thing to have that IDP completed because in trying to fulfill some of the goals that I had set for myself, I encountered road blocks that said "you can't take this class unless you have an IDP." I was able to say, yes I have one and here it is. I was given such sage words of wisdom as, "you can't take that class because it isn't in your job description." There was only one person seriously trying to help me during this period and that was my supervisor. I then heard about the mentoring program, went to my supervisor and told him about it. We set up an appointment with Dr. Leach during which she explained the program to us and the fact that I needed a mentor. We tried finding one outside of the FAA unsuccessfully. I decided that since my supervisor had tried to help me in the past and we got along very well, I would ask him to be my mentor. He said yes, Hallelujah. I was happy, I had my mentor and we were going to move, doors were going to open up for me, I was on the fast track!!! |
The struggle, the
struggle, the struggle! Things weren't progressing the
way we thought they should have. I had no exposure to other lines
of business. You see, I am in Air Traffic and the times are rare
that we get the chance to get out and meet other segments of the
FAA. You see, I thought my willingness to learn and educate
myself was enough to get ahead, but I didn't know about the
politics and the mazes that we had to go through to deal with
these people. I went to a focus group meeting on mentoring given by Dr. Leach and then found out about the Mentoring Center. I thought this might be the jumpstart that I needed to get something moving in my direction. You would think that it would have been easy for me to get in the program, well I thought it would have been easy. The struggle, the struggle, the struggle. I didn't phrase the question the right way, when I asked to come over here. Political savvy, I didn't have it, but I am learning. There were major obstacles that I had to overcome to get here. That ball was kicked around so many times before it was phrased the right way or explained the right way for me to come over and work in the Mentoring Center. Can you visualize the struggle of that butterfly? Only the head is out of the cocoon. I am finally at the Southwest Regional Office working in the Mentoring Center. I am like a sponge trying to absorb everything. My original goal, which was to do recruiting had to be shelved because the agency isn't recruiting anymore. I have to do a new IDP and a Workplan. What skills did I have that were transferable and that I could enhance to make me more marketable? After many hours working with Dr. Leach and working on my workplan, we were able to get down to what I really wanted to do and what it would take to reach my goal. I began taking classes and shadowing people in pursuit of my goal. I believe that any learning tool is useful at some point in your life, so I try to never discard anything as being insignificant. After all, I did come over here to learn. The struggle, the struggle, the struggle. Let me explain a little bit to you about Goal Setting.
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I had to get to know
myself and ask myself, what did I want to spend my days
doing? What do I want to be doing in a year? What motivates me to
do my best? I had to clarify my interests by considering my hobbies, volunteer activities, what causes I've enjoyed, or other careers I've thought of pursuing. I had to assess my values by determining which of my values or personal attitudes were important to me in determining my job satisfaction. What skills do I possess or want to develop? It's vital for a mentee to familiarize him/herself with the various career fields and what a job actually entails in developing career goals. I had to develop preliminary career goals by finding out what skills and knowledge I would like to use in my work and taking into consideration how my values would relate to other special needs. The last but not least evaluation is to find out if my skills were transferable and if they would be of value to other employers. Given the opportunity to work in the Mentoring Center 3 days a week was a blessing for me. I was able to get the exposure to other segments of the FAA that I had been limited to by working out in the field. I have been able to shadow people, attend focus group meetings, classes, interview people, plan meetings, etc., all in the pursuit of developing my skills and hidden talents. A model for mentoring which outlines Training and Coaching skills follows this letter. The training and exposure has been great and I will always be grateful to my supervisor, to Dr. Frances Leach and her staff and everyone else that helped me to evolve. Emily Y. Harvey |
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Training and Coaching Skills |
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The model for mentoring consists of several components all centering around the development and goals of the mentee. They consist of:
Let's look closer at the Training and Coaching skills for the mentor. "Coaching is a competency which inspires people to want to." Coaching is not teaching, instructing, or training. Coaching focuses on: Career advancement which provides support and increased sharing in organizational awards, sponsorship, visibility, protection, special assignments, equal access and opportunity for growth. Coaching is impacted by: salient demographics, organizational culture, personal biases, gamesmanship, mutuality and open trust. The coaches attitude needs to provide psychosocial support which includes but isn't limited to: acceptance, confirmation, friendship, belief in self, performance feedback, and competency. Coaching Skills include:
Some of the questions you might want to ask your coach or the coach may want to ask of themselves are:
These are some hard questions, but remember that there are livelihoods and attitudes involved. You can help or hurt someone emotionally if your attitude is flawed. The coaches attitude needs to be: supportive, nurturing, to see and expect the best in performance, responsive, trusting, and trustworthy.
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