Professional Mentoring Unpicked #4

This is the next blog in my short series exploring the key aspects of mentoring others as a professional mentor.

Today I’m looking at Key Aspect 4: Skills, Knowledge, Career, and Personal Growth

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

“Mentorship encompasses a holistic view of professional development, including technical skills, industry knowledge, career advancement, and even personal attributes that contribute to professional success.”

Hmmm… how to write something about this that doesn’t sound like self-aggrandisement…

How about this?

I’ve been in Learning and Development for over 35 years – and I’m still waiting to be found out!

Seriously, I came to L&D late, having been a professional actor for some 12 years. In that time, I only acted for about four of those years; for the rest of that time – as my blog page header says – I was many other things, fruit-picker, postman, delivery driver, barman, audio typist/temp, ‘industrial overload’, professional actor, Office Manager, Business Owner, Trainer, IT Training Manager, Head of Technology Assisted Learning and latterly, Learning Consultant with the CIPD and Accreditation Mentor with the LPI. Meanwhile becoming a husband and father of two.

The common thread here was me trying to earn a living and ‘having a go’ at whatever opportunities presented themselves to achieve and sustain that objective. Along the way, I picked up a raft of transferrable skills and have used some or all of them at different stages of my career.

Resilience, flexibility, adaptability, learning, unlearning, leading, sharing, and yes, even performing.

And all the while, waiting to be found out, to be exposed as unqualified, inexperienced, delusional… Imposter phenomena, anyone?

And yet, here we are. Now I’m at the ‘late career/flexible working’ stage, it feels right to be bringing the skills and knowledge developed over the years into my role now as a professional mentor, supporting others on their career journeys.

There is no such thing now as a job for life. We all need to be able to flex, skill up, reskill, recognise our strengths and our areas for development, and take responsibility for our careers – never more so than now.

Let me invite you to take a reflective look back at your career journey so far. How much of it was intentional, planned, achieved? What impact have you had to date? What skills and personal attributes have got you this far?

And how often have you had to roll with the punches, get derailed, start again? What are you doing to prepare for an uncertain professional job market and the different roles and responsibilities therein? What are your transferrable skills? What’s missing?

Let me know if I can help you answer some of those questions and support your career journey.

#Mentoring #PersonalDevelopment #LnD #HR #ProfessionalMentoring #Skills #Impact

 

 

Professional Mentoring Unpicked #3

This is the promised next blog in a series where I’m unpicking each of the previously defined aspects of professional Mentoring (see my earlier articles and blogs on this).

The overarching description says, “This relationship is typically characterized by trust, open communication, mutual respect, and a focus on the Mentee's goals and development”.

So, let’s unpick Key Aspect 3: Focus on the Mentee's Development

“The relationship is centred on the Mentee's specific needs, goals, and aspirations. It's not about the Mentor's agenda.”

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

And the critical Mentor skill here is listening.

For the Mentor/Mentee relationship to be fruitful and for the Mentee to get the benefit of the conversations with the Mentor, there must be a mutual understanding of why they are happening in the first place.

There must be clearly articulated ‘Success Factors’ agreed, whereby both parties are clear about the Mentee’s goals. And there must be an agreement as to what the shift will be, and how that change has moved the dial towards or has achieved the Mentee aim.

They key point here is that the Mentee owns the outcomes. The role as an independent Mentor is to help them along the path to achieving those, to suggest, challenge, support and encourage them to realise their ambitions.

How.

After an initial – and free – exploratory conversation and agreement to proceed, I share a template Mentoring Agreement document with the client and ask them to populate it before our first session, in terms of Purpose: Why are we entering into this relationship?, and Success Criteria: What will success look like?, wherein the Mentee can articulate their aims and aspirations.

I review this doc for alignment with the discussion we had in the exploratory session, suggest any tweaks and/or seek clarity about their intent, and finally we agree the number of sessions needed and over how long a period.

This is a dynamic document and is open to change at any time in the relationship, as successes are achieved or change, Mentee insights unfold and new goals are added.

As the overarching description says, “It’s not about the Mentor’s agenda”.

Then the work begins. More on this later.

Finally:

I see a lot of talk in L&D and HR about Mentoring, mostly couched in terms of colleague or manager support. i.e. internal, business/employer focus. What I don’t see so much of is the role of the external, independent Mentor, with the additional advantage of more multi- and/or cross-sectoral experience and ideas.

That would be me.

Look out for my next article on the 4^th key characteristic of the professional Mentor - Skills, Knowledge, Career, and Personal Growth, next week.

#ProfessionalMentoring #PersonalDevelopment #LnD #HR #Mentor

Professional Mentoring Unpicked #2

Photo by Masjid MABA on Unsplash

I wrote a couple of posts at the end of August into September, on the practice of #ProfessionalMentoring and the key elements that underpin it. This is the next post of the short series wherein I'm reflecting on and unpicking each of those aspects and how they inform my role as such a Mentor.

Key Aspect 2 - Guidance, Support, and Encouragement:

“The role of a professional mentor goes beyond simply giving advice. It involves active support and positive reinforcement.”

I see my role here being to help the mentee recognise the potential they have still to unlock, to build their confidence, help them celebrate wins along the way, and to stand with them when things get tough.

Some of my clients need support in raising their voice, internally and externally. We’re working on them showing up in the workplace, emphasising their own effectiveness and impact, sometimes being confident enough to say ‘no’.

In some instances, we’re working on them developing an external voice and presence, finding their tribe and engaging in discussion and debate whilst building relationships with fellow practitioners and other, more experienced practitioners, thinkers and commentators – online and face to face.

I’m listening and watching, amplifying and commenting publicly and also providing individual feedback and encouragement privately.
 
Some of my clients are people I consider to be my peers, in respect of career history, experience, seniority and – dare I say it - longevity, whilst others are at an earlier stage of their professional career.

I meet each of them where they are and we work out from there accordingly.

If any of the above sounds of interest and you think you could benefit from some professional mentor support, feel free to contact me for a no-obligation exploratory conversation, at niallgavinuk@outlook.com or via LinkedIn https://lnkd.in/eKGzSBz8

 
#Mentorship #Leadership #ProfessionalDevelopment #CareerGrowth

Professional Mentoring Unpicked #1

I posted on Monday 25/08 about the key elements that underpinned the, for me,
most up to date and aligned description of modern professional mentoring available.  

These are: 

• Experienced and Trusted 
• Guidance, Support, and Encouragement 
• Focus on Mentee's Development 
• Skills, Knowledge, Career, and Personal Growth 
• Trust, Open Communication, and Mutual Respect 

And I said I'd post about and unpick each of them to test them for myself and with you. This is the first of those posts. 

 Experienced and Trusted 

“Mentors aren't just anyone; they bring valuable experience and have earned trust through their expertise and integrity.” 

Let’s unpick this… 

“Mentors aren't just anyone”. 

But they could be. And more of us should be. 

We all develop and bring our accumulated knowledge, skills and experience, both personal and professional, into and alongside our work and career. The older we get, the more of each we develop and employ. 

As colleagues, managers, learners, our behaviour makes an impact, whether we are aware of it or not. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. 

But if we bring our full selves, behave with respect, openness, curiosity – and we deliver, and help others to develop, grow and deliver – then we are already mentors. You may be in that space already but just don’t know it yet. 

“They bring valuable experience and have earned trust through their expertise and integrity.” 

When I first announced I was starting my professional mentoring business, many in my network very kindly responded by amplifying and commenting on that post. 

Several endorsed the qualities they considered I would bring to the role of mentor and my client conversations and outcomes. They included “strategic insight, genuine care, perspective, calm guidance, executive-level mentor skills, depth of experience, humour and humanity, and wisdom. 

These accolades are not given lightly. 

They reflect years of graft, delivery and impact. They reflect years of learning, application and working with others in a consistent, open, honest and transparent manner. And thereby, trust has been earned. 

I’m already in conversation with several prospective and actual clients and I hope that they already feel that we are meeting in that respectful and impactive space. 

What's your thinking here? Anything missing? Any questions? Comments? I'd love to hear your views.

Next up, I'll unpick Key Element 2: Guidance, Support, and Encouragement 

In the meantime, if you think you, a colleague or friend would benefit from entering into such a professional mentoring relationship, feel free to contact me for a no-obligation exploratory chat.

Professional Mentoring Explored (first posted on LinkedIn 25/08/25)

A view along a railway platform through
the open slam door window of a train

hashtag

Before I started my #ProfessionalMentoring service in August, I challenged AI to give me 'the current and most accurate definition of a professional mentor'.

The resulting description that seemed to align most closely with my thinking was this...

"A professional mentor is an experienced and trusted individual who provides guidance, support, and encouragement to a less experienced person (the mentee) to help them develop their skills, knowledge, career, and personal growth within a professional context. This relationship is typically characterized by trust, open communication, mutual respect, and a focus on the mentee's goals and development."

I take exception to the description of the mentee as "a less experienced person" as I see the mentoring relationship encompassing all levels of professional experience. Indeed, I am already mentoring a couple of experienced peers.

That said, it's a pretty accurate summary of what I do.

There then followed a list of 'key aspects' which expand on the above.

* Experienced and Trusted

* Guidance, Support, and Encouragement

* Focus on the Mentee's Development

* Skills, Knowledge, Career, and Personal Growth

* Trust, Open Communication, and Mutual Respect

I'm going to do a short series of follow-up posts, taking each of those elements in turn, examining, expanding on and sense-checking them here and on LinkedIn.

Look out for these over the next few weeks.

And of course, I'll be grateful for any comments, experiences, challenges, feedback or enquiries.

hashtag#ProfessionalMentoring hashtag#LnD hashtag#Mentor 

Why Mentoring? Why Now?

Today (Tuesday 29th July 205), I posted an announcement on the social media channels #LinkedIn, #facebook and #Instagram advising my professional community that, at this late stage of my career, I am now offering a professional mentoring service. The posts looked like this... 

And my social media feeds blew up! 

I have been overwhelmed with the responses. In LinkedIn alone, 100+ 'likes', 49 comments and endorsements and 11 reposts; in facebook, 19 likes and 15 comments; and in Instagram, 17 likes and 7 comments - all favourable, supportive, affirming and just downright humbling. I've never had such positive reaction to anything I've posted before. 

It seems like I've hit on a professional service offering that has resonated with many. 

Indeed, I've already had several enquiries and am lining up exploratory calls with some people to see if there's a potential fit and to consider options for entering into a mentor/mentee relationship with each other. I am very excited about all of this. 

But, to my initial question: Why mentoring? Why now? 

Because I'm not done yet. Yes, I'm 'getting on a bit' now, but everything still seems to be working (don't ask), although I no longer have the stamina for commuting, nor for working 5 days a week either, thank you.

My career has spanned almost 50 years, over 35 of them in Learning and Development, but I've got even more years of lived work experience dating back to 1976 when I left drama school in Edinburgh (See my profile at the top of this blog page). 

And now, as I approach my 70th Birthday in December, it's time to slow down, look up, and focus on what I seem to have done best all through my career - support individuals and help connect them with others on their workplace journeys. 

I want to acknowledge all the brilliant, talented and generous people I have worked or interacted with professionally throughout this time, many of whom have become good friends and many of whom I have looked up to - and still do - as leaders and mentors in their own right. You know who you are. 

So for now, onwards! Work to do. People to help.

I’ll keep you posted.

Back to Basics

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

I went to Olympia London on Tuesday 4^th February for a wander and catchup at the World of Learning Summit Exhibition. A relaxed and enjoyable experience, in a familiar and inviting space, I visited some exhibitor stands, purposefully - and sometimes accidentally - met some of my professional pals and basically recharged my L&D batteries.

A recurring topic of conversation was that the AI in Learning hype seems to have quietened down, as the reality of the tools, it’s limitations and its benefits, have challenged the L&D profession to really question its efficacy and relevance. In my view this is a good thing.

I detected a more mature repositioning of L&D’s attitude to and use of Artificial Intelligence. It seems it has challenged us to look at ourselves and what we do, through the lens of a powerful tool that will only serve us if and when we get our own house in order.

Initially, AI will work best for us as a beast of burden, taking on our boring admin, content scraping and weeding, and freeing us up to be more creative and relevant in supporting our customers with better learning solutions.

And we can do that better by going back to basics.

We need to get to grips with proving impact – and for that, we need data. And data is the lifeblood of AI. The insights and evidence of our impact should then follow.

On Monday, Wesley Atkinson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleyatkinson/) posted a short piece on LinkedIn which prompted me to think about how L&D could meet AI in that space.

“If you’re not organised and don’t track/plan ahead, proving the impact of an e-learning course is going to be hard.

To do this properly, you need:
- A business counterpart to collaborate with.
- At least two measurable data points to track.
- To figure out what to track BEFORE you launch the course.

Proving ROI on an e-learning course is about tracking the right numbers from the start.

Without a plan, it’s impossible to demonstrate business impact.”

Boom! (Thanks Wes.)

Three things for me here:

-        An engaged business stakeholder is essential to assist learning designers to ensure their solution is relevant to the organisation.

-        No data, no evidence of impact!

-        AI to evaluate evidence, assess the impact and suggest further refinements .

Is AI the kick in the pants that L&D needs to be better? Or am I oversimplifying here? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this take.