About Bob Garvey
There is surprisingly little research into what actually happens in a mentoring relationship. Mentoring is sometimes used for activities as diverse as coaching for particular tasks, or to help someone think through the implications of work-related decisions like supporting high-fliers or redundancy support and considering options for early retirement.
Ultimately though, mentoring is a learning relationship between two people. It requires trust, commitment, and emotional encouragement. It involves listening, questioning, challenge and support and the relationship between mentor and mentee is all-important.
The challenge
At the end of 2020, we were approached and asked to create an eLearning module on mentoring. Professor Bob Garvey, one of Europe’s leading academic practitioners of coaching and mentoring, was suggested as a partner. We contacted Bob about creating an easily accessible portal that could guide you through a range of expert content on various mentoring topics.
The challenge was creating a training portal that reached a broad scope of people and organisations using a multi-platform, digitally-accessible eLearning framework.
Bob said: “Mentoring is so important, especially in modern day workplaces. It improves horizontal communication in an organisation as well as knowledge exchange, development and retention of talent. It also not only develops the mentor and mentee, but there are huge wins for the organisation too – double benefit!”
The solution
We worked closely with Bob to develop a ‘one-stop’ mentoring portal designed to give mentors and mentees a solid foundation for embarking on a mentoring programme.
The course was designed for a range of different audiences, ie mentors/mentees looking for more in-depth training in the subject, those looking to create a mentorship scheme, or those merely curious about the process.
The substantial amount of video footage that accompanies the modules makes it extremely accessible, and it can be consumed on mobile, tablet and laptop – which will make it appeal to an even more diverse audience.
Some of the key messages from this course are:
- Knowledge and understanding of the critical importance of building rapport and establishing ground rules
- Demonstrating the use of a process framework in mentoring
- Making informed critical and ethical judgements about the theory and practice of mentoring
- Demonstrating key skills of listening and questioning
The finished product is available for translation and customisation, allowing organisations to add corporate photography, video and policies giving it a truly bespoke feel. To make it digitally accessible, a WCAG version is available and it comes with a workbook. The course is split into eight sections:
- What is a mentor?
- Historical development of mentoring
- Key skills for designing an effective mentoring relationship (for mentors)
- Scheme design (for learning and development professionals and mentors)
- The mentoring session
- Ethics
- Reverse mentoring
- Video lectures
“I’m delighted with how this mentoring portal turned out. It is packed with help, guidance, support and challenge, in an accessible format that we think organisations will find hugely beneficial. It’s been a great experience from start to finish working with [Marshalls]. They have been deeply responsive, collaborative, supportive, encouraging and very professional.”
Bob Garvey
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