Mentoring- Be more than a tick box

Give yourself 1 point if you answered that they are all characters from well-known films and books. But give yourself a 5-point bonus if you also identified them all as characters who acted as mentors to other characters in their respective stories (Daniel, Luke Skywalker, and Harry Potter, but I’m guessing you knew that already).

Thanks to the RCVS’s VetGDP initiative, ‘mentoring schemes’ are now right up there alongside ‘generous CPD allowance’ and ‘great work-life balance as staples of job ads for new grads up and down the land. 

And so it should be, for access to a more senior colleague, prepared to spend focused time with you to share their experience with you, to encourage reflection and to help guide you on your way should be a tremendous benefit. But from some of the stories I have heard, the reality of practice mentoring schemes do not always live up to this ideal.

So let’s start with what a mentoring relationship shouldn’t look like. It shouldn’t be:

• Tacked on to any performance/appraisal conversations or indistinguishable from them
• An unplanned and rushed conversation in a public place whilst the kettle is boiling
• Impossible to remember who your mentor is, let alone what you last discussed
• Listening to someone who should have retired decades ago telling you how you should do things and bemoaning the fact that ‘things were better in my day’

If you recognise even a faint echo of any of the above, now may be the time to stop and reflect on the reality of the value that you and others may be getting out of your practice’s scheme.

A while back I created a list of guiding principles as part of training for would-be mentors to help them ensure that they are playing their part in establishing successful and productive relationships with their mentees. With a bit of contextual tweaking I think it also works as the basis for questions for vets, especially new grads, to judge the quality of any scheme being dangled in front of them by current or prospective practices.

Ten guiding principles for effective mentoring

1. A mentees interests and development are paramount and above all other considerations – including those of the mentor, or any wider organisational concerns.
2. It must be a relationship based on total trust and confidentiality between mentee and mentor.
3. Is there consideration of the physical environment. Do you have access to a space for sessions which encourages openness and honesty?
4. The focus and direction of mentoring sessions should be determined by the mentee and what is important to you at that moment; not what the mentor feels or believes you should be talking about.
5. Your mentor should encourage reflection through asking open questions; not lead through offering instruction.
6. Your mentor should focus on facts. Concentrating on the detail of what actually happened, rather than what the mentee thinks might have happened is often far more enlightening when reflecting on past events.
7. Your mentor should avoid making judgements, or bringing their own opinions or biases to bear.
8. Mistakes should always be viewed as a positive opportunity to develop and learn, never criticised or used as an opportunity to apportion blame.
9. Mentors should share their own experiences sparingly and always having first asked permission to do so. Remember: this is about you, not them! (see point 1).
10. Your mentor should give you their total attention during the session. They should show they are actively listening in everything they do and say.

To be honest, I’d be amazed if any scheme or mentoring relationship ticks every one of these, at least at the beginning – not least as they may be learning too. But if there appears to be little or nothing in common with the above, and no appetite for making it so, it is, perhaps, worth asking yourself whether what you are being offered is little more than an exercise in ensuring there is a tick in the right practice standards box.

Of course, mentors can also come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so don’t just let your experience of the value of mentoring be determined just by what’s on offer from your employer. Be prepared to look further afield if necessary. And if you are in any doubt as to their value in clinical life, take a few minutes to listen to surgeon Atul Gawande reflect on the value that a mentor (which he – in my view mistakenly – describes as a ‘coach’) added to his surgical practice.

So maybe now is the time to ask yourself who your Mr. Miyagi is and if you don’t have one in your life right now, where it is that you might find one.

Steve Bailey is the owner of Space Coaching Services, a company specialising in supporting individuals and teams - especially vet practices – to be the best that they can be through a range of coaching-inspired support services. To learn more, visit www.spacecoachingservices.co.uk