Many far-sighted companies commit themselves to management development. They may appoint mentors as a support to individuals on the programme. The 'mentors' themselves, though experienced in business, often need assistance to enable them to undertake this responsibility effectively and efficiently. Mentoring is a skill, not just a task.

A Mentor can be a person at any level that has been given the skills to be a mentor. They can be given a role to develop individuals or groups of individuals. This competence is often developed in-house and on the job. Strategic Direction can deliver mentoring training to appropriate people, and they can then cascade it down into the organisation. We use leading edge programmes with global organisations.

Mentors need to understand the boundaries of their role, and to develop the skills to generate trust from the mentee. They also need to learn not to solve all the mentee’s challenges, but help them solve them.

Strategic Direction’s programmes give mentors the skills to fulfil their responsibility effectively help to develop the mentee and themselves.

For reference: The role of the Mentor is different to that of a Coach. A Coach will need the skills to develop high performance in selected people or groups. Just being competent in a role themselves is not enough (the best player may not be the best coach).