The Next Generation
Mentoring Future Leaders
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Date
Ice Breaker
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Name
Where are you from
What is your role in the union/this committee
Describe a time or situation in the past you could have
used or sought guidance.
• Describe a time or situation in the past where you
provided guidance to someone.
• Were these experiences useful? How?
Workshop Objectives
•Communicating across generations
•What Is Mentoring? What is it not?
•What’s the benefits for you and your
union/organization?
•Differences between informal and formal mentoring
•Differences between the three kinds of formal mentoring
programs
•How to develop a formal mentoring program
• In Homer’s ‘The Odyssey,’ when Odysseus left for
the Trojan War, he entrusted Mentor with the
guidance and education of his son, Telemachus;
• The word "mentor" comes from the Greek
language and has its roots in the terms
"steadfast" and "enduring.”
• Since the labor movement began, labor leaders
have informally mentored the next generation
What is Mentoring?
For the individual:
• A relationship based on trust between a
“mentor” (teacher) and a “mentee” (learner,
protégé)
• Relationship is devoted to developing
knowledge and skills for growth, activism
What It’s Not
• Does not guarantee advancement
• Won’t provide “insider information”
• Can’t stand alone: needs to be part of a broader
commitment to education, leadership
development
How Do
Unions/Organizations
Benefit from Mentoring
Programs?
Unions/ Organizations Need
Mentoring
• Makes unions/organizations stronger over time
• Gives seasoned activists feedback from less seasoned
members
• A two-way street (information often goes in both ways)
so more “seasoned” can get info, too
• Increases union solidarity
• Creates new activists
• Additional reasons
What Are the Benefits and
Advantages for the Mentee?
Mentees:
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Development of skills
Provides deeper understanding of how the
organization works
Identification of barriers to success and maps
out strategies to overcome them
Assistance avoiding political land mines
Solidifies commitment to the union
What’s In It for the
Mentor?
Mentors:
• Feel the sense of fulfillment achieved by sharing
personal wisdom acquired through experience
• Gain a different perspective from mentees
• Sharpen your own communication skills
• Experience effective give and take feedback
• Be alerted to new issues by the mentee
Can’t Rely on Chance…
• I was one of the lucky ones. ..I was the beneficiary of
hands-on guidance from an array of mentors whose
experience helped point me toward 30 years of activism
and leadership in the labor movement. But in my case it
was just luck…
Linda Foley, former president, TNG;
President, Berger-Marks Foundation
Different Kinds
of Mentoring
Informal vs. Formal
• Informal: By chance
- Organizations historically tend to have informal
mentoring programs (what Linda got)
• Formal (Intentional): Structured (planned,
guidelines, rules)
Informal Mentoring
• Relationship and process developed by people
involved over time sometimes started through a
chance encounter
• Some people do it without even knowing it
• Relationship has little or no guidance from the
organization
• Drawback: Doesn’t reach everybody
Formal Mentoring
An organization sets up and oversees the program
with many components including:
– How often mentor and mentee meet
– How long mentoring will formally last
– Keeps track of program, successes
Formal Mentoring
Limitations
– Identifying a good match.
– Establishing trust must evolve and can be
challenging between two people who didn’t choose
each other
– Strict guidelines can limit flexibility… so they should
be flexible
– Designated/dedicated coordinator is key
‘The Next Generation
Handbook’
Advocates creating formal/intentional
mentoring programs, with primary focus on
traditional (one-on-one) mentoring, that is:
• Team an experienced member (mentor); with a less
experienced member (mentee);
• Knowledge primarily flows from top-down, but, in a
good mentoring relationships
knowledge/communications flows 2-ways.
Other Kinds of Mentoring
• Peer
• Mentoring Circles
Peer Mentoring
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Takes place between people doing similar jobs
Can be formal or informal
Share knowledge with each other
Offers a different perspective
Provides a safe space for talking, sharing
experiences
Mentoring Circles (Group
Mentoring)
• Group meets regularly over a set period of time
• Each session focuses on a specific topic
• One mentor and a group of mentees; can be
more than one circle at same site
• Peer mentoring can occur, too
• Learning from one or multiple mentors/peers
Before Starting a Mentoring
Program…
Important questions to answer:
• How can my organization/group benefit from a
mentoring program? What kind of program would
work best ? What are the objectives?
• Who to include and how to identify participants –
should mentees be new/uninvolved members
– Already active members (who could be more active)
– Both
– Who will be the mentors?
Important Questions (cont.)
•Identify the right people within the organization
who need to support the program.
•Determine means of communications with
organizational representatives.
•Be prepared to make a compelling case for
mentoring – outlining the benefits of the program.
(Are there allies you can call on?)
Additional Questions
• Determine the length of the program run. (6
months to a year is typical)
• Determine the time commitment of
mentors/mentees.
• Identify possible ways for the union to set aside
time.
• Decide where the mentoring sessions will take
place.
• Select a coordinator
What else to consider…
Focus on Women with Families and other underrepresented groups
• Ask/listen to their needs
• Incorporate what’s learned to help ensure they
participate and complete program
• Take child care, location, hours, language into
consideration.
Challenges
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Making time
Generational differences
Gender differences
Racial/ethnic differences
Personality conflict
Matching up participants
Creating a One-on-One
Program
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1. Select a program administrator/coordinator
2. Recruit participants
3. Identify mentees
4. Identify mentees’ needs
5. Determine potential mentors
• 6. Match mentors with mentees
• 7. Orientation for mentors/mentees
• 8. Program itself
Setting Goals/Mentorship
Agreements
• Make sure program has clear goals, including
those of the individual pairs of
mentees/mentors.
• Outline arrangements for meeting expectations,
goals, and establishing ground rules.
What Is a ‘Good’ Mentor
http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/06/19/getsatisfaction-ceo-on-how-to-be-agood?videoId=236128873 (0:17-2:43)
1) Organize what you have learned (skills, work, ethics,
decision making into chapters)
2) Listen actively with objectivity and compassion
3) Engaging mentee in problem-solving can identify
mentee’s awareness
Mentoring Tips
• Some information that might be
helpful/useful…
Giving Feedback
• Be honest – unless you have a very, very good reason
not to be. A loss of trust will undermine the
relationship.
• Be gentle – none of us take negative criticism well.
• Be balanced – point out the positives as well as the
negatives.
• Be specific – otherwise misunderstanding can occur.
• Be constructive – present the recipient with ways of
moving forward.
Feedback Can Come in One
of Three Forms:
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Appreciation (thanks),
Coaching (here's another way),
Evaluation (here's where you stand)
Triggers:
• Triggers (positive and negative) are formed based on
past experiences which provoke a different set of
reactions and responses from individuals.
• 1. TRUTH triggers
• 2. RELATIONSHIP triggers
• 3. Identity Triggers -- all about us
• Triggers can be obstacles if they inhibit us from
engaging skillfully in conversations. BE AWARE of
your own and others’ triggers!!!
Asking Effective Questions
• Draw out information (ie. What did you do next?)
• Inspire deeper thinking (ie. Why did you choose to do it
particularly that way?)
• Consider different viewpoints (ie. Why do you think
they might have responded in that way?)
Asking Effective Questions
(cont.)
• Challenge assumptions (ie. How do you know for sure
that (X) feels that way?)
• Generate interest, creativity or engagement (ie. Has this
situation occurred before, and how was it resolved
then? Or, If you could do anything you wanted in this
situation, what would you do? Or, How would
(celebrity, hero, person admired by the mentee) deal
with this?)
Dialogue/Power
of Questions
• Different Types of Questions Are Used to Help Generate
Dialogue and for Setting Goals:
– Open questions – requires a response containing more than
a few words and will obtain a greater amounts of
information (ie. How are things going at work?)
– Probing or clarifying questions – seeks to find specifics or
clarify understanding (ie. Can you say a bit more about what
X involves?)
Dialogue/Power of
Questions (cont.)
• Reflective questions – help the mentee reflect and
examine their thoughts and reveals to the mentor there
point/information was properly understood (ie. So, you
feel that they did that intentionally?)
• Closed questions, able to be answered with one word
(yes or no) or a few words, should be avoided.
The mentoring relationship is
an opportunity for growth for
all involved. No matter your
position you can be mentored
while mentoring someone
else. It goes both ways.
Good Luck!
For more information…
• Contact the Berger-Marks Foundation
bergermarks@gmail.com, 202-243-0133 to order
additional copies (Copies of handbooks are free; there is a
charge for shipping for more than one handbook).
• You can also download and copy the handbook at the
Berger-Marks website,
http://www.bergermarks.org/resources
Check Out Back of
Handbook
• References and suggested readings
• You will find additional mentoring assistance on
the Berger-Marks website under ‘Resources’,
http://www.bergermarks.org/resources/index.ph
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