Update: Mentor training session

Morning everyone! Fantastic news this morning about the success of the Chile mine rescue operation, thank God. It's been amazing to watch (also a great demonstration of leadership by all concerned), and I hope they all make it up safely.

I'm back as promised with an 'update' as it were on yesterday's training session. As I mentioned earlier, we had a few technical hitches at the start which made it take a while for us to get going. I'd like to apologise for this; time really got the better of us. It wasn't all bad as that gave us time to introduce ourselves and start to get to know each other. Once the issues with the projector were resolved, we got underway.

The session was led by Dr. Adadevoh, founder and president of the International Leadership Foundation. With extensive experience in both leadership and mentoring, he was the perfect person to kick start our journey. He began by asking everyone for words with a similar meaning to mentorship. In the discussion that followed, many words were offered - coaching, teaching, discipleship, grooming, training, counseling... etc. He then proceeded to point out the key differences between mentoring and some of these processes.

Next, Dr. Adadevoh introduced us to his wife and mentor, Mrs. Adadevoh, who shared with us the importance of beginning with the end in mind. She used the example of carbon to illustrate her point. Carbon, she explained, subjected to high heat and pressure eventually forms diamonds - the hardest and arguably most valuable stone in the world. The same carbon under low temperatures and pressure forms graphite, which, although useful, is nowhere near as valuable as diamonds are. Applying this principle to mentoring, it is quite clear that mentors must be prepared to work through the 'heat' and 'pressure' to help their mentees be the best that they cam be. As mentors, our job is to refrain from providing answers. Rather, we should act as a catalyst that helps our mentees to arrive at the answer themselves, only faster. We should promote self help and not dependence.

Dr Adadevoh then went on to explain about the 8 P's of mentoring: purpose, personal assessment, potential, problem formulation, principles for change, plan of action, partnerships and performance tracking. Lastly, he discussed traits an effective mentor should posses. Finally, he handed over to Mrs. Adadevoh who talked about being a lifelong learner. Mentoring is reciprocal; mentors both teach and learn from their mentees. She talked briefly about a book she was reading, Release your Brilliance by Simon T. Bailey. With that, we ended the session. Introductions were run through again for the benefit of the cameraman and those who were not present at the start.

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I've noticed that quite a few people have been looking at the 'Meet our Team' (formerly meet our mentors) page. I'll be updating that as soon as I'm done with this post - you can have a look here (or use the link at the top of this page). The profiles of our 2009/2010 mentors are still available; you'll be able to find a link to those on the bottom of the Meet our Team page.