Resources for Mentors

Introduction

These pages are for mentors so that they can keep in touch with their skills, plus find and use a number of tools to suit different situations. There is some suggested reading and links to other relevant websites and documents.

 

What is mentoring?

Going back to basics, let’s first look at the definitions of mentoring:

“Helping another person become what that person aspires to.” (Anon)

or:

"A process whereby an experienced, highly regarded, empathic person (the mentor), guides another individual (the mentee) in the development and re-examination of their own ideas, learning and personal and professional development" (SCOPME, 1998)

 

or:

“offline help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking.” (Megginson et al, 2006)

Basic principles of mentoring:

The mentee decides the content and agenda of each session, and the Mentor is there to facilitate and guide but not to make decisions for the mentee, tell them what to do or take actions on their behalf.

The mentee does not have to have a specific 'problem' to ask for mentoring - the work is focused on helping them to develop personally and professionally, and to support them in getting the best out of their work and life.

What does a mentor do?

A Mentor	A Mentor is not:
Listens well	A talker
Identifies problems	The problem owner
Guides and facilitates	A decision maker
Provides experience/wisdom	A short term fix
Suggests choices, tentatively	An emotional crutch
Identifies resources	A provider of resources
Knows his/her own limitations	Someone who can do it all
Provides information or signposts	Someone who has all the answers
Displays empathy	Judgmental

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Adapted from Mentoring in Action (Megginson et al, 2006)

Before you start

Knowing who you are and what you value is very important if you are to be a mentor.

Try the Values Exercise before taking on a mentee. Or look at a book like Diana Winstanley’s (2009). These resources will also be helpful in guiding your mentee.

• Consider your own expectations and goals in relation to becoming a mentor
• What questions do you think your mentee might want to ask you?
• What will you need to do to make the first meeting effective?
• Consider how much time you can spare for this and make a time commitment in your diary

Gather as much information as you can from the mentee prior to this meeting so you can concentrate on the aims of the relationship when you meet for the first time.

Core mentoring skills

These are the skills that any sensitive listener will employ when hearing someone describe a problem, situation or issue that needs to be heard and understood. The skills include:

• Creating rapport and a conducive environment
• Building trust
• Suspending judgment
• Active listening with genuine interest
• Showing (and feeling) empathy and understanding
• Using exploratory and open questions
• The ability to reflect back, summarise and clarify what the mentee has said
• Using non-verbal skills to enhance the relationship and encourage the mentee to explore all relevant ideas, e.g. eye contact, open body language, use of silence.
• Giving and receiving constructive feedback when required.

These skills are all described in some detail in the mentoring texts referred to below.

For some examples of questions that are appropriate for mentors to ask, please refer to ‘Egan's Three Stage Model of Mentoring’. The books and other tools and resources listed below contain generic information relevant to mentoring.

Practical arrangements

It is important to value the process by setting aside protected time, and meeting in a neutral environment which is comfortable and where you will not be disturbed or interrupted. It is also important that this is somewhere you and the mentee will feel safe.

The frequency and duration of sessions will vary according to your availability and the mentee’s needs. It may be appropriate to aim for a meeting of one hour every 4 weeks to 2 months. Needs may vary over time. You may wish to keep in touch by phone or email between meetings.

Contracts and paperwork – opinion is divided about whether a mentoring contract is needed. Different Trusts work in different ways. However, a mentoring contract stating how often you will meet and specifying how long you will go on meeting (which can be reviewed after a few sessions) can be helpful in setting parameters.

You should negotiate ground rules including dealing with cancelled or postponed sessions. You and your mentee may wish to keep a record of a session indicating what you have discussed and what will be the focus of the next session. A written agreement about the boundaries of confidentiality is very important.

Although the mentoring process is confidential and this confidence will endure even after the relationship is over, if a mentor believes that patient safety is being put at risk because of the actions of the mentee, appropriate action must be taken. This should be understood by both parties.

Mentoring Contract

Record of Session

Confidentiality Policy

 

Beginning the relationship

At the start of a mentoring relationship it is important to set boundaries for the relationship with your mentee. What are they happy to talk about? Where are they comfortable to meet? How will you keep in contact? How many times will you meet before deciding whether to continue? (see boundaries in mentoring).

Really get to know your mentee, and this includes gaining an understanding of their values and beliefs, their goals in life and the things that they find difficult. You and your mentee may come from different cultural backgrounds, and it will help you to understand them if you ask them to tell you about their background, their family, where they grew up, their educational experiences and so on, as well as the expectations they have for themselves and their families have for them.

This exploration can be done by a question and answer technique, guiding them through their life stages, being aware of what they leave out as much as what they include. Or you could simply ask them to tell you about themselves, giving prompts as necessary. The latter may be a better way to find out what they are happy to talk about and what areas they want to leave out of the mentoring process. Or you may wish to use a tool to help the process. The Wheel of Life is often used as a way of getting to know your mentee and how their life is working at the moment. It may also help them to be aware of imbalances, and to find ways of correcting them. Helping your mentees to understand their values and the underlying beliefs can be aided by using the Values Exercise. It will help if you also do this exercise for yourselves.

What you might want to cover in the first meeting: 

• Agree a common purpose and goals that will direct the mentoring relationship.
• Discuss expectations and identify potential issues
• Agree frequency of meetings and levels / methods of contact
• Draw up a contract if desired
• Discuss confidentiality, honesty, privacy and boundaries
• Set a meeting schedule as far in advance as possible
• Discuss ways of ending the relationship which are comfortable for both parties.

It may help to follow a model of mentoring like that of Gerard Egan, his three stage model, with suggested questions you might ask your mentee at each stage.

It is not unusual for mentors to feel vulnerable at first. As Freeman says: “Although well-versed in the art of interviewing patients, working with their peers was very different.” It is therefore a good idea to practice the skills with a colleague or friend before starting. However, the confidence soon builds even if you go straight in.

Exploring issues and keeping the relationship going

Although mentoring is not just for people who are experiencing problems, it is often the case that your mentee will, at some point, come with problems that need to be addressed. Common among these are lack of confidence and lack of assertiveness. These issues are addressed in the Diana Winstanley book and Chris Williams’ book on depression referred to below. Some mentees will come with problems about their progress in the training programme; others may have problems at home, including social isolation, which may have implications for their work. Others may be high fliers who wish you to challenge them to achieve even more. Each mentee is individual and has different needs. Appropriate tools and tips are contained in the references below.
Here are some general tips for exploring issues and getting to know the mentee better:

• Asking open questions: “how did you feel?” “what else was going on?” “how else might you look at it?” “what is important?” “what else?” “can you expand on this?” “tell me some more about..” “can you give an example?”
• Avoiding ‘why’ questions as these can be seen as threatening if your mentee is vulnerable. Use ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ as a pre-fix to your questions instead.
• Taking time to really understand what the mentee is telling you. It is difficult to concentrate for more than about 10 minutes. Take a break and summarise what you have heard your mentee say after about this length of time, just to ensure that you have got the facts right. Don’t be afraid to ask him/her to clarify any points that you have not clearly understood.
• Avoid making judgments until you have a clear picture.
• Avoid giving strong advice in order that the mentee finds their own way and takes responsibility for their actions. Instead you may wish to make suggestions eg “have you considered…”
• Be genuinely interested in your mentee and have the intention of helping them to be the best that they can be
• Actively listen and let the mentee know you are listening by using gestures or words for reinforcement.
• Don’t forget to be aware of what their body language is saying

Some tools to help the process

• The 'Wheel of Life' tool is a pictorial image of the satisfaction that mentees feel in various parts of their lives
• Using the "Forcefield Analysis Tool" is a way of helping your mentee to reach decisions
• Help with self image problems by using the ''seven steps exercise sensitively and over a number of sessions
• Helping mentees to increase self awareness by using the "Johari Window tool
• The 'comfort zone' tool is designed to take mentees through a process which will help them step outside their comfort zone
• Helping mentees to set goals may be aided by using the GROW tool
• Find books that have exercises. All those listed below have some case studies and scenarios
• Look for case studies and scenarios on mentoring websites

Ending the relationship

Finding an appropriate way to end a mentoring relationship is seldom discussed. Informal mentoring relationships are almost by definition independent of any time limit. They often do not even have a definite beginning. But unlike formal relationships which might even have a prescription for a successful ending, informal relationships may be much more difficult to end successfully. Maybe it's because endings are just more difficult for people to deal with in general. Letting go of a relationship with someone we value is something that’s hard to face.

When it’s time to end:

• You think about other things when with the mentoring partner
• Meeting with no specific agenda to discuss
• Feeling that time is pressing
• Learning goals have been achieved but it is hard to move on
• Nothing much to talk about
• Advice is listened to but not followed up on
• There has been no meeting or contact for months
• The relationship becomes one way

The final meeting

• Closure is important
• Look back and review the relationship
• Consider its value
• Consider your original goals and whether they were achieved
• Recognise changes in your goals over time as new aspirations were discovered.
• Set boundaries for any future relationship for both parties
• Recognise that there may be a feeling of loss
• Celebrate what has occurred

Keeping in practice

• Do you have a colleague or peer who would like to practice with you?
• Do you have a colleague or peer who would like to enter into a co-mentoring relationship?
• Undertake further training, for example, the mentor updates run by the Coordinator every June and November
• Use some of the texts outlined below to practice mentor exercises. For example, The Good Mentoring Toolkit for Healthcare and Personal Effectiveness.

Tools for mentoring

Boundaries in Mentoring

Wheel of Life

Values Exercise

Forcefield Analysis

Johari Window

Egan's Model

GROW Model

Helping People out of their Comfort Zone

Seven Steps to Improving Self Image  

 

Boundaries in Mentoring

While it may feel strange to do at the beginning, it is important to discuss and agree on the appropriate boundaries of the mentoring relationship between you and your partner early on. When boundaries are too loose, they may be misinterpreted, and when they are too rigid, they can also incapacitate the relationship. If you haven't already, or have experienced misunderstanding or confusion on this issue, please take the time to cover these bases with each other in your next session.

Everyone has different boundaries, from the degree to which one is comfortable with physical proximity, to talking about personal and confidential issues, to the amount of time one wants to spend with a mentor or mentee. As for time, mentors are required to spend one hour per month/six weeks with a mentee to discuss issues of growth and development one-on-one.

Do take the time to talk frankly about what each of you expect to give and take in terms of time, as it will vary from relationship to relationship. Also, make sure that you are on the same page about how you prefer to interact. Questions below can guide you through this.

Both:

• Talk about your responsibilities, what you can and can’t do.
• Agree on frequency, duration and intervals of meetings/communications and how this will occur.
• Beyond agreeing to confidentiality, discuss what confidentiality actually means to each of you in various scenarios.

Mentors:

• What kind of access does the mentee have to you? What is the limit?
• Does being a mentor mean the employee has unlimited access to you for the duration of the relationship?
• Does communicating require an appointment?
• What kind of telephone access does the mentee have to you?

Refer on if necessary, using the resources listed at the bottom of this page. Debt, financial issues, or personal problems can crop up; only discuss those issues you are comfortable with and refer to the appropriate professionals below.

Mentees:

• Avoid unhealthy dependence. For example, mentors are not expected to have definitive answers or be available 24/7.
• Consider "what would I do if..." in assessing your own boundaries.
• Prioritize how you wish to best utilize your mentor's time and expertise.
• Know there are additional resources out there for you!

 

Values Exercise

You need paper (or a laptop) to write down key words. Ask your mentee to choose an area in life he/she wants to explore. For example, work, home, hobbies. The results may or may not be the same, the best approach is to run the exercise on all of them.

Let your mentee know you’re looking for one word answers.

Let’s assume your mentee has chosen work.

Ask them to remember a specific time at work that they were ‘in flow’. Everything was working as it should. It doesn’t matter whether it was for 15 minutes or 15 days. Ask your client:

• The first thought that comes into their mind.
• Remember what they saw, heard and felt.
• One thing that was important to them.

Write it down. Then ask “What did that get you?”. Write down whatever they say. Then ask the same question for whatever they’ve just said. Write it down. Continue just beyond the point of politeness.

Then read the list of words that they’ve said (and you’ve written), and ask : Which of those words was the most important to you at that time? And highlight on your paper what they say. It’s OK if they choose more than one. Highlight them.

Repeat the exercise to get deeper.

Then start the exercise again. You say “ So ‘x’ (and ‘maybe ‘y’) was important to you. What else was important to you at that time?” And then repeat the exercise. And repeat again until you’ve three or four lists with at least one highlighted for each.

Then read back the highlighted word back and confirm what was important to your client at that time. You can work with your mentee to refine the list. However, it’s vital that you don’t bring in any ideas of your own. This is about what’s important to your mentee, not you.

When you’ve created the list, ask your mentee to chose the top three or four (or the number they think is important.). When you’ve finalised them, ask your mentee for confirmation. Read them out and tell your mentee that these were the things that were important at that time.
To check you’ve actually helped them to find out their values, you need to look out for non-verbal affirmation, for example, them leaning in, with excitement in their voice. If you don’t get a positive nonverbal response it’s unlikely you’ve uncovered their values.
For a further check, separate the words from the context. Ask them that if another job or project came up which offered (repeat their words) with absolute certainty. Would they be interested?
Again look for their nonverbal response. If you’ve elicited their values it will be a clear yes.

 

Forcefield Analysis

Purpose

Developed by Kurt Lewin, this is a method for identifying how to get to the place that you want to be.

Resources

This will take approximately 40 “60 minutes. You will need coloured pens and paper.

Notes to the Mentor

In mentoring, force field analysis can be used to identify how the mentee will achieve the desired end position. Once the mentee has identified the change that needs to take place, he or she can use this technique to detail those factors that will support the change and those that will prevent or hinder it from taking place. This process will feed into the action plan, in terms of helping the mentee identify the specific things that he or she needs to ensure happen.

Instructions

Explain to the Mentee that force field analysis assumes that we are in a state of equilibrium, held in place by forces that are pushing in the opposing directions of for and against. When we want to make a change, we can map the opposing forces, review their various strengths and then decide which forces can be manipulated in order to make the change successful.

To create a force field analysis, ask the mentee to draw a line across the paper and to draw a different coloured arrow for each force pointing at the line. All the forces for change should be placed beneath the line, pointing upwards, as the direction of change is towards the top of the page.

All the items that are against the change are placed above the line, pointing down. The length of the arrow will represent the relative strength of the force.

Example

 

In order to make the change happen, the mentee will need to decide which forces he or she can alter and in what way. There are several options available to them:

• To increase the forces for the change “ ie, make the arrows longer by increasing their strength.
• To decrease the forces against the change “ ie, reduce their strength and diagrammatically reduce their length.
• Introduce new forces for the change, so that the line is pushed upwards in the direction of change.
• Take away the forces against the change, which means that the forces for it will take on increased power and push upwards.

 

Egan’s Skilled Helper Model

This is a model used a lot in counselling or coaching situations where the object is to achieve lasting change and to empower people to manage their own problems more effectively and develop unused opportunities more fully.¹

The model has three stages which can be summarised as:

1. Exploration - What is going on?
2. Challenging - What do I want instead?
3. Action Planning -How might I achieve what I want?

Stage 1: Exploration

The first task is to find out your mentee’s story about what is happening in their own words and then to reflect it back to them, without judgement. This involves:

• attention giving - positive body language, eye contact, etc.
• active listening - learning forward, nodding, focusing on what is being said not what you plan to say in response
• acceptance and empathy - it is vital to detach from your judgement about what you are being told. Keep your views to yourself if want to find out what’s really going on. Nobody opens up in a situation where they feel judged
• paraphrasing and summarising - to check your own understanding of what has been said
• focusing - which of the issues discussed seems the most important to the mentee? Reflecting feelings - help mentees to uncover blind spots or gaps in their perceptions and assessment of the situation
• questioning - useful questions are: How did you feel about that? What were you thinking? What was that like? What else is there about that?

For some people, this is enough. Reflecting and clarifying makes the way forward obvious. However, when upset or confronted, it is often difficult to see things clearly and find one’s own way out of the mire. The skilled helper can assist in identifying the blind spots, motes in eye, misperceptions.

Stage 2: Challenging

This stage involves challenging existing views - one issue at a time. Encourage the mentee to think about whether there is another way of looking at the issue. Some useful questions to do this are:

• what might this look like from another person’s point of view?
• what in particular about this is a problem for you?
• if you were describing someone else in this situation, how would you describe them?
• what does she/he think/feel?
• goal setting - this is where you seek to move the mentee forward from being stuck, by identifying an area in which progress can be made

Stage 3: Action Planning

Useful questions here include:

• what are the possible ways forward in this situation?
• which of these feel best for you?
• what will you achieve if you do this?
• what will you do first and by when?

Your goal is to turn good intentions into actual results, so it is important to help your mentee to set realistic, practical and achievable targets. Make sure the targets are specific and measurable so the student can know they have been achieved. Agree a time period. Always follow up at next meeting - did the mentee do what they said they were going to? Do not judge if they haven’t achieved the goal, but remind them why they committed themselves to it when you spoke before.

1. Gerald Egan, The Skilled Helper: a problem management and opportunity development approach to helping (7th edition, Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole, 2002) and Gerald Egan, Essentials of Skilled Helping: managing problems, developing opportunities (Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole, 2006).

 

GROW

The acronym GROW stands for:

• Goal
• Reality
• Opportunity
• Will/Wrap-up/What next/Way forward?

These four words and phrases correspond to the four main stages of a coaching or mentoring session.

Goal

During the first stage of the process, the goal is the priority. Once a topic for discussion is agreed, specific outcomes and objectives should be discussed by the coach/mentor and the client/mentee/pupil. These may be short term goals, or – when appropriate, and a clear path to the outcome can be agreed – they may be long term aims. Goals should be SMART : Specific, Measurable, Accurate, Realistic and Timely . The goal should also be inspirational and positive, whilst being challenging and requiring them to stretch themselves and their abilities to achieve it.

Example questions :

• What do you want?
• What does that look like?
• What will people be saying to you?
• How will you feel once this is achieved?
• What is different?

Reality

During the second stage of the process, both coach and mentee outline and discuss the current reality of the situation using a variety of different methods and techniques. The coach may invite the client to assess their own situation before offering their own advice or specific feedback on the current scenario and obstacles faced. The focus should be on the client, and the coach should be looking to identify potential in the situation, rather than problems. They should examine any assumptions made by the client with regards to their reality and outlook on future goals and discard any history or events that are irrelevant to the goals at hand.

Example questions:

• What is happening right now?
• How far are you from an ideal situation?
• How do you feel about your current situation?
• What is the impact on you and your life?
• What is standing in the way of your goal?

Opportunity

Once reality and all obstacles to current goals have been discussed, and irrelevant ‘pseudo-obstacles’ discarded, the options as to how to overcome current issues preventing progress should be examined. At first, the full range of options should be put-forward and discussed, predominantly inviting suggestions from the client. Any suggestions posited by the coach or mentor should be offered carefully and with consideration of the client’s overall position. By the end of stage 3, the coach should ensure that at least some choices have been made with regards to overcoming obstacles, and there is significantly less ambiguity surrounding immediate actions.

Example questions:

• What could you have?
• What ideas do you have?
• What actions have worked for you in the past?
• Who could help you to achieve your goals?
• What information do you need, and how could you acquire it?

Will/Wrap-up/What next?/Way Forward

The final stage of the process is when the client commits to decisive actions in order to move towards their goal. A plan is drawn up, with the coach guiding the ideas discussed by the mentee – including specific guidelines and timings in order to make achievable progress. Any potential obstacles that may be encountered during the process are identified and subsequent solutions are considered, including an outline of the support required throughout. Both mentor and mentee should remain flexible throughout the entire process, and goals/actions may need to be altered to react to both positive or negative events.

Example questions:

• What will you do to achieve your goals?
• How and when will you do it?
• Who will you talk to throughout?
• Are there any other measures you need to put into place?
• How commited are you to this action?

GROW in Leadership and Management

GROW is just one of many coaching and mentoring models which can be incorporated into leadership and managerial practices, across a variety of industries. It can be used as a basis to establish a methodical and systematic process by which the efficiency and effectiveness of internal coaching practices can be improved, to provide a greater return on investment. In addition, if team leaders or managers are equipped with coaching tools such as GROW, they can be utilised alongside motivational and other methods to significantly improve workplace performance, at both team and individual levels. Effective coaching also provides return by equipping individual mentees with the tools and awareness to take greater responsibility over obstacles and goal-setting in their own lives.

 

The Comfort Stretch Panic model

 

 

 

The Model

Like all good models this is very simple. It takes into account how we are continually changing – how we are dynamic systems so what is ‘in’ a zone today might be in a different one tomorrow or in a month’s time.

The Comfort Zone: your Comfort Zone is just that – comfortable – and includes everyday activities such as doing the same things and mixing with the same people. When most of your activities are in this zone life is, of course, ‘comfortable’ but you do not learn very much nor develop yourself – it’s simply more of the same and it can lead to the zone shrinking.

The Stretch Zone: your Stretch Zone is the area of novelty, exploration and adventure. Here are the things that are a little or a lot out of the ordinary – the things you haven’t done for a long time or have never done before. This zone is not really a comfortable place – but it is a stimulating one. It is where we stretch and challenge ourselves mentally, emotionally or physically.

The Panic Zone: the Panic Zone is the area of things-to-be-avoided either because they are unacceptable to you or because they are currently a ‘stretch’ too far! This could range from things like public speaking at work, through to thinking about extreme sports on holiday. You may have activities in the Panic Zone which you wish were not there and would like to incorporate but feel too frightening.

The key is to be in rapport with yourself – allow your feelings to guide you and avoid forcing things. It may be good to move a little into stretch periodically. If an activity currently falls into the Panic Zone, and you would like to change this, your goal is to get it into Stretch. Use this self-rapport to know when you have had enough and then return to comfort to rest and to integrate the learning.

 

Seven Steps to Improving Self – Image Exercise

1. Who Are You?

Take some time to write down who you are at the moment. Highlight your qualities, values and recognise anything that you see as negative about yourself. It might be that your negative beliefs about yourself only crop up in certain situations. If this is the case, understand why you feel more negative about yourself at these times

2. Understand Why You Have To Change

Recognise how powerful your negative beliefs are about yourself have been so far in your life. It might be a bit depressing to begin with but note down how much these limiting beliefs have held you back so far. Don’t dwell on them: just recognise them and decide not to let this happen again.

3. Create A New Self-Image

Re-define who you want to be. Keep all of the good qualities that you have noted down in response to the “Who Are You?” question but take the negatives you have about yourself and turn them around into positive statements about yourself instead. Read this redefinition back to yourself every day for the next two weeks until you start acting like this person and making decisions based on this new completely positive person.

4. Positive Role Models

Find inspirational people and see how they behave. How do they talk about their lives? It’s more productive to admire and pick up qualities in people and add them to our own repertoire rather than comparing yourself negatively to people. Negative comparison is not constructive and makes you feel bad about yourself.

5. Visualisation

While you’re getting used to your new self-image start to visualise yourself as the new you. How will you deal with certain people and situations? Rehearse the new you and then actually behave as that person in real time situations.

6. Don’t Put Yourself Down

Observe how you talk about yourself . Don’t use sentences like ‘I’ve never been any good at …’ or ‘It only worked because I got lucky.’ By putting yourself down in front of others, you’re basically telling them you don’t value yourself so they shouldn’t either. If you find that you talk negatively about yourself then redefine your external dialogue. Replace negative talk with strong positive statements about yourself.

7. Make Yourself Feel Good

Once you’ve worked on your inner confidence, don’t undermine this by not dressing for success. Wear things that make you feel confident, or in Lucy’s case, sexy. Also, spend time on yourself. Go, to the hairdressers, gym, go for massages and eat the right food. Sounds simple but most of us just don’t do it. Looking after yourself tells you that you have respect for yourself.

 

---

 

Suggested reading  

Some of the publications below have been recommended by mentors

Changing on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World. Berger, JG 2012. This examines the stages of adult development and change.

Coaching for Effective Learning: a practical guide for teachers in health and social care, Claridge M, Lewis T, Radcliffe Press 2005. Although this is a coaching book, many of the tips and tools in it are equally appropriate for mentoring. 

Dancing at the Edge: Competence, Culture and Organisation in the 21st Century, O;Hara, M. and Leicester, G. 2012

Mentoring for doctors; enhancing the benefit. A working paper produced on behalf of the Doctors' Forum, 2003. 10 Oxley J, Fleming B, Golding L, Pask H & Steven A.

Mentoring in Action, Megginson,D., Clutterbuck, D., Garney, B., Stokes, P and Garrett-Harris, R. Second edition 2006. Kogan Page, London. This book gives good descriptions of mentoring and many case studies for ideas

Mentoring in General Practice Rosslynne Freeman, Butterworth-Heinemann,Oxford 1997. This book was written about General Practice experiences of mentoring, but they are equally applicable to all doctors.

Overcoming Depression: A Five Areas Approach by Dr Chris Williams. Arnold Publishers 2001. This book is not just for helping people suffering with depression. There are many useful tools to help mentees become more assertive and monitor their reaction to everyday events.

Personal Effectiveness. Winstanley, D (2009). Excel books. Another resource about producing change and outcomes with many case studies and exercises for self help and mentee guidance. Includes assertiveness and handling difficult situations

Prescription for Change: for Doctors Who Want a Life. Kersey, S (2005) Radcliffe Publishing. This book can help you and your mentee, with many tips and ideas about having a life whilst working in the medical profession.

So Far from Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World, Wheatley, MJ 2012. Coping with changes in our world from a Tibetan Buddhist view.

The Good Mentoring Toolkit for Healthcare, Bayley H, Chambers R, Donovan C, Radcliffe Press 2004. This book contains much information about mentoring within the NHS, and many useful tips and tools

The Skilled Helper: a problem management approach to helping' by Gerard Egan. Brooks Cole, 6"' edition 1998. A detailed account of Egan's models with ideas

Other resources

Mind Tools (website containing multiple tools) 

South West Coaching (website containing multiple resources) 

Informa Healthcare - systematic review of mentoring literature, good overview for mentors about what works best

Royal College of Psychiatrists - Peer mentoring Support

This page was last updated June 27th 2024 (5 months ago)