The GC Internal Mentoring Programme (iMentor) was launched at the start of 2024, and aimed at supporting career development for all colleagues and matched more experienced colleagues (mentors) with other less experienced colleagues (mentees). Later this year we will be opening the programme once again for applications, read on to find out more about one of our colleagues learnings from the programme.
In the role of mentor, you provide a mentee with advice, training or guidance depending on what the mentee is looking to achieve. Typically, a mentor and mentee will establish goals together and meet regularly to practice or learn new skills throughout the mentoring program.
Mentoring is an opportunity to share ideas, approaches, and lessons learned based on decades of work-based experiences. Of course, mentorship isn't solely about age, it's about a blend of experiences which the mentor can bring to the table, these can be valuable at any stage in their work/life.
As a nod to International Day of Older Persons on 1st October – Stuart McPherson, Internal Communications Officer in our Communications & Marketing team, and a member of our GC Age EDI Network – as a colleague approaching 50, shares his top 5 learnings from mentoring a younger colleague:
- I'm still learning – Whilst I've shared many of my own 'learned' ideas and approaches, through the mentoring process I'm also finding out new things, new ideas. I'd say... don't go into a mentoring relationship thinking it's a one-way learning process. Length of career for me has opened up conversations with my mentee and I’ve learnt new ways of thinking about ideas, and processes my mentee uses.
- Reflecting on past experiences through a different lens – Through being a mentor, especially with a younger colleagues, I do find myself revisiting my approaches, my emotions and the thought process of my younger 20-odd year old self - often through my mentees eyes. I often caveat discussions with 'that's what I would have done back then' or 'things were different back then' – and now often have a different perspective on how I approached a situation and what caused me frustration or worry. I think age and experience does mellow you, and hopefully that can be a reassuring thing for a mentee.
- Times have changed – Of course, the workplace and technology has evolved across my 27 year career. Like many other middle aged colleagues, I've had to continually adapt, learn from each new piece of tech and ways of working to remain productive. One thing I often advocate, which isn’t as prevalent today, is having more face-to-face discussion as a way to progress things forward. In a world of more agile and hybrid working, I do often miss the 'side-of-the-desk' conversations of the past and how powerful they were in getting an instant response and how it helped to put my mind at rest.
- There are still some constants – It's a comfort that things like the importance of proactive planning and relationship building are still as important today as they were 20-odd years ago. In a mentoring relationship they are often a common-ground – regardless of age and experience, where both the mentor and mentee can learn new things. I often come away from a mentoring discussion with notes on things to consider and try out for myself.
- Active Listening – In another organisation, I've been a mentee on two occasions over 20 years ago, and active listening is the single biggest observation and learning I have from those experiences. Just the sense of acknowledgement and the permission to talk freely and openly really helped me to build a trusted mentoring relationship. I've now invested this into my mentoring relationship - in some ways, being mentored almost feels like a pre-requisite to becoming a mentor.
Look out for details of the application process for the second cohort of the GC Internal Mentoring Programme (iMentor) during October, ahead of the launch in November.