Topic 5b: Fundamental Skills & Behaviours

In this section we’ll explore what we need to know, the skills we need to develop and how we need to behave in order to be an effective mentor.

Knowledge, Skills & Behaviours of an Effective Mentor

ILM Level 3 Award in Effective Mentoring

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Definitions

• Knowledge is information and understanding about a subject which a person has
• Skill is the knowledge and ability that enables you to do something well
• Behaviour is the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others

Many areas can fit into all three categories, for example, our mentoring mindset is something we need to understand, then it’s a skill we need to develop and a behaviour we need to use when working with others.

Knowledge, Skills & Behaviours of an effective mentor

Julie Starr’s model of fundamental skills is a good place to start (Starr, 2016) and we’ll explore many of these areas in more detail when we get to Communication Skills. For each of the areas identified, we first need to learn about them, then develop the skills as we model the behaviours. Our mindset, our beliefs about the mentee, are the foundation of the model.

Building rapport and relationship

Levels of listening

Using intuition

Asking effective questions

Giving constructive feedback

Mentoring Competencies

Typically, mentors are technical or subject matter experts in their field, holding qualifications in their area of specialism rather than formal qualifications in mentoring itself. There is an ongoing debate about whether mentors should be qualified, and while organisations commonly put mentors through training, often it is not a mandatory requirement. Using a set of competencies from a Professional Body can be a helpful way to assess your current knowledge, skills and behaviours, and consider how you will continue your development as a mentor. The EMCC (European Mentoring & Mentoring Council) outlines eight key competencies across four levels (foundation; practitioner; senior practitioners; master practitioner) and have specified a desired standard for individuals demonstrating competence against these areas:

The 8 EMCC Competencies

Activity: Reflect and assess

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Levels of Listening Listening is essential to effective mentoring, and is also one of the key ways to build rapport. Starr (2016) states that ‘good listeners obtain a better understanding of people and situations, meaning they can respond to situations more effectively than someone who hasn’t. A good listener makes a contribution to the speaker simply by the attention they place on them’. When we listen effectively as a mentor, we help people to feel valued and understood, which helps them to relax and explore their thoughts more clearly.

The 8 EMCC Competencies

1. Understanding self - Demonstrates awareness of own values, beliefs and behaviours; recognises how these affect their practice and uses this self-awareness to manage their effectiveness in meeting the client’s, and where relevant, the sponsor’s objectives
2. Commitment to self-development - Explore and improve the standard of their practice and maintain the reputation of the profession
3. Managing the contract - Establishes and maintains the expectations and boundaries of the mentoring/mentoring contract with the client and, where appropriate, with sponsors
4. Building the relationship - Skilfully builds and maintains an effective relationship with the client, and where appropriate, with the sponsor
5. Enabling insight and learning - Enabling Insight and Learning Works with the client and sponsor to bring about insight and learning
6. Outcome and action orientation - Demonstrates approach and uses the skills in supporting the client to make desired changes
7. Use of models and techniques - Applies models and tools, techniques and ideas beyond the core communication skills in order to bring about insight and learning
8. Evaluation - Evaluation Gathers information on the effectiveness of own practice and contributes to establishing a culture of evaluation of outcomes

Using Intuition This one may feel a little harder to get to grips with, but we all use our intuition all the time. Some of us experience it as ‘gut feeling’, for other people we simply get a sense about something that’s important, or that there’s something more to the story than we’re being told. In a mentoring context, this might mean noticing something that’s missing or being glossed over, and becoming curious about that. Asking a question or making an observation based on this intuition, can move the conversation to a more helpful area.

Building Rapport It’s essential a mentee feels comfortable and at ease. This is the beginning of building trust in the relationship, and good mentors can quickly create a sense of warmth and trust within the conversation. Albert Mehrabian’s research is important here – the meaning in our words must match the way we say it and our body language; if we say something and don’t mean it, this will come through in our body language and can damage rapport.

Activity: Reflect and assess

Review the EMCC Competencies, focusing on the Foundation Capability Indicators.

• What areas do you feel you know about and currently do well?
• What do you feel you need to know more about?
• What do you think you need to practice to get better at it?

Asking Effective Questions This is a crucial skill in mentoring and one we can all develop with practice. Mentoring conversations are driven by questions, creating space for the mentee to identify their goal, explore any challenges they’re facing and identify the actions they’re going to take. Julie Starr suggests that a great question will meet three criteria:

• It’s simply worded
• It has a purpose
• It influences the direction of someone’s thoughts, without controlling them

Once again, tone of voice and body language are also vitally important – the way we ask a question can make the difference between us gently probing for more information, which will open the conversation up, or coming across as judgmental, which will close the conversation down.

Giving Constructive Feedback One of the benefits of a trusting mentoring relationship, is that the mentee is open to learning more about themselves, raising self-awareness. This self-discovery is essential when we’re exploring barriers and finding ways to overcome them. As a mentor, we can support this by offering feedback in helpful ways, to raise awareness, to highlight a behavioural tendency, or when our mentee asks for it. Feedback can take many forms within a mentoring relationship – it may be an observation to encourage the mentee (praise), or an observation to highlight a recurring theme / language. It could also be used to challenge an existing attitude or behaviour that is holding the mentee back. Whatever form it takes, feedback must be:

• Given with a positive intention i.e. to help the mentee grow, achieve their goal etc.
• Based on fact or observed behaviour
• Constructive and beneficial for the mentee

Over time, you will develop your skills, to recognise when it might be helpful to offer feedback and when it might not be.