Stikkord: Mentoring Programs

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A new mentoring company

For a long time now me and my partner have been working with a new business idea. We would like to start a mentoring company which is making mentoring programs to refugees to Norway. We want to help them into the Norwegian society and building a strong network here and maybe also getting jobs.

A changing world creates new situations with changing conditions and opportunities. The challenges for everyone both in personal life or in the workplace are large and increasingly complex. The Mentor-LELO Mentor program provides a structured framework tool for bringing reflective and evolving conversations.

Our vision is inclusion, equality and self-realization. Achieving higher inclusion of immigrants in the labor market will have a positive impact on the sense of social belonging, promoting inclusion and strengthening integration. On the other hand, all immigrants must have the opportunity to exploit their resources.

Stay tuned…

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When running a mentoring program, it is important to…

When having a running program it is important to have contact with all the participants. And especially in the start of a program. A short phone call or maybe an email to both the mentee and the mentor, just to get information about the first mentee/mentor meeting and the match. It is important for the participants because they feel taken care of and we can lure out if it´s something wrong.

Not wrong maybe but if it´s a good or bad match or maybe if the mentee isn´t prepared or maybe the mentor is talking to much. Maybe the mentors isn´t that clear as a mentor and the meeting is almost as an information meeting.

I have no been sitting for two days and having those calls. And I am loving it!!!

They have all sort of feedback, but they all are saying something like: I love my mentor, the mentor is great, It is great meetings and very useful discussions. And the mentor is telling me about their great mentee and how they are running the meetings and using case.

In these two days I have only experienced one mentee who was not that satisfied with the mentor. But through the conversation we concluded two important things for the mentee for the next meeting. Number one: Be prepared and number two: have some concrete to talk about before the meeting. It could be the leader role, budgeting, new as a leader or other things. And when we said goodbye the mentee the mentee thanked me for the feedback and the little mentoring I have done.

As a coordinator for mentoring programs this is important, you can´t have your mentees and mentors living their own lives between the start and the ending of a program.

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Norwegian Entrepreneurship organisation

 Had a very interesting meeting last week with Norsk Gründerforum (www.norskgrunderforum.no).

 

We discussed how we could do a mentor program for entrepreneurs. We know the interest are there so we just have to find the right price, trainings, meetings and mentors etc.

 

We will start to put out some questionaire about this to over 5 000 entrepreneurs in Norway.

 

More of this will come.

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Exciting meetings

Coming home from two days of meetings / conference in Sweden. Very nice people and good topics.


Tomorrow I’m going to Stavanger for mentee interwiev. 15 mentee for the mentor program at the university in Stavanger. I’m looking sooo forward to meet them and listening to their great plans for the future.

— Post From My iPhone

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Five Benefits of Working with a Coach or Mentor

Being a leader can be a really lonely existence.  Expectations are high and it can often be a real struggle to stay on top of your game and continually deliver great results.  Continuing to develop as a leader has never been so vital not least because of the major challenges facing many organisations right now.

For those at a more senior level working with a coach or mentor is often a great way of continuing to develop.  So what are the benefits?

Benefit 1: Thinking time

The pace at which leaders operate in organisations is often relentless and means that there is little or no time to stand back and take stock.  Being able to stand back from issues and challenges allows you to clearly think through the choices, look at challenges in different ways and ultimately to take better decisions.  And if you are taking better decisions it means better results for you personally and the organisation.

Benefit 2: Ongoing support

Training is great and I have been to many great training courses over the years.  Trouble is most training courses are a one shot opportunity.  What I mean by that is that you go along to the course, leave enthusiastic and an few months later find you are back where you started.  If you are a leader looking to be more effective over the long term you know that it is going to take time.  Having that ongoing support can help you make that sustained change in performance.

Benefit 3: Personal attention

In my experience of working with clients there are often some very specific areas of focus that leaders and managers want to work on.  Sometimes it might be about strategies and tactics that they can apply and other times it might be tackling areas of self doubt or misconceptions.  I also notice that they rarely need to work on all aspects of a particular topic but more on one or two areas.   The nature of the relationship means that it is much easier to tailor the programme to meet specific needs.

Benefit 4: Highly time efficient

I know that when I was in leadership and management roles, creating the time to attend a 2 or 3 day course was often a real challenge.  By comparison finding a couple of hours a month to work with a coach was much more time efficient and effective.

Benefit 5: Return on Investment

Ultimately if you are investing time, money and energy into something the return on what you have invested will be important.  Research into the benefits of coaching indicates that the return on investment is in the region of 500-700%.  Now these numbers might well look huge but let’s take a look at an example.  Imagine you are a senior manager who aspires to be a Director.  Ask yourself what’s the difference in salary and benefits?  In a field like accountancy, the differential between a number one and number two can easily be in the £30-50,000 per annum range.  If you are in the number one job for say 10 years, that could mean an extra £300-£500,000 to your earnings.  So look at your investment in terms of the lifetime value.

Bottom Line – Continuing to develop as a leader is no longer an optional extra.  If you are serious about realising your professional and personal potential, working with a coach or mentor might just be the catalyst.

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How To Maintain The Momentum Of Mentoring

Mentoring program coordinators need to have ongoing communication with participants to stimulate engagement, motivation and answer questions or concerns. But how do you keep up the contact in a useful and interesting way? Many successful programs send regular Mentoring Works Tips.

Mentoring Tips could be one page, easy to read and practical. They should be designed for mentors and suitable for mentorees and managers. Consistently delivering Mentoring Tips:

  • Provides mentors with information, tools and motivation
  • Keeps mentorees engaged in the process
  • Informs managers of mentoring techniques and benefits

 

The author of this article is Ann Rolfe, and was first published 10. november 2010 on www.mentoring-works.com.

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Mentorpilot in Norway

Today I attend a pilot mentorprogram in three counties (Hordaland, Troms and Sogn og Fjordane) within Innovation Norway (www.innovasjonnorge.no). The adepts are young entrepreneurs and mentors are more experienced business people.

It is wonderful to sit and hear a lot of people talk about mentoring and all the benefits. Especially Shahzad Rana (www.questpoint.no) with his long experience as an entrepreneur and in the judge in the program at TV2 (www.tv2.no) «Skaperen», with his dear focus on entrepreneurship. And Jeroen Scüssel (www.startnowcoaching) talking about the tools as an mentor`.

And Ingrid Roynesdal (www.roynesdal.no)talking about here experience with mentors as an adept. With here many years as an tennisplayer (winner of 14 norwegian championship and 15 years as an professional pianist. She has a very long experience as an adept using various mentors.

In the end Jennybeth Ekeland (www.aff.no) was talking about all the myths about adept and mentors and their relationship.

A very good day and I am looking forward to hear more about their year as an entrepreneur with an mentor. Good luck everyone!