Mentorship is a concept that in South Africa has been around for many years, but yet many companies have not embraced it for the incredible opportunity and career advancement and indeed nation advancement that it deserves.
You may not be one hundred percent certain of what mentorship is. Wikipedia describes mentorship as being a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The person in receipt of mentorship may be referred to as a protégé or a mentee.
Mentoring in Europe has existed since at least Ancient Greek times. Since the 1970s it has spread in USA mainly in training contexts, and it has been described as ‘an innovation in American management’.
This is not a specialised skill. It involves one person with business knowledge, generalist or specialist in nature, transferring their knowledge on to somebody less experienced. It is about a relationship of trust and knowledge transfer. It has a starting point, and must be governed by guidelines agreed to by both parties, inter alia how long will the relationship last, which party will be responsible for meeting dates, meeting venues etc, what the goals and objectives for each party will be.
Start-up companies and SMMEs in particular can benefit from such a relationship, but so can employees within an organisation, in career advancement and indeed personal development. Managers, CEOs and MDs, in the same vein, can benefit as they learn from those who have been there and done that.
It is not archaic, it is not soft, it is indeed vital! Research this, read more about it, and explore the amazing world of mentorship toady.
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