Duration: 12m05s

I'm Kay Schlesinger from KG Edconsulting, and as part of AUSMAS' VET Resource Hub, this video is going to look at mentoring principles that underpin a successful mentoring program. So let's begin together. 

 One of the 10 high impact teaching strategies researched by Hattie indicates for us that having a learning intention at the start of a session inspires and helps people learn. So this will occur at the beginning of each recording and 
the end. So let's look at what is our learning intention for today. We are learning about the principles that underpin effective mentoring programs within the automotive and mining sectors. 

So our overview today is we are going to investigate 3 areas of focus. The first, mentoring principles, the second, the 8 principles to guide our practice, and the third, we will look at a series of reflection questions. 

 So, let's head off to our first topic, which is mentoring principles. Clarifying the term mentoring principles is really important so that we all begin this journey with a successful understanding and a shared understanding of what the terms mean.

So mentoring principles, if you like, are the safety rules or the core standards for a mentoring partnership. Think of them, if you like, as the blueprint for a productive program. They, in fact, define how mentors and mentees communicate, they set the expectations of how the program will run, and very importantly build  trust to ensure that they do the job well.

So why are mentoring principles important to us in this program? Well, they are like the foundations of a building and they set the scene for everything that is going to come next. So an effective, well-structured mentoring program is grounded in really clear principles which everybody shares and understands to ensure that our program is safe, ethical and indeed effective and productive. 

These foundational principles also transform what could have been casual conversations and casual observations of teaching, into structured development tools that benefit both the mentors and the mentees, but also, interestingly enough, their organisations. 

 So let's head in now to the actual principles and let's look at topic 2, the 8 mentoring principles. 
So the 8 mentoring principles that we're going to investigate today in this video are one, clear shared intention, two, a spirit of equality, three, enlightened observation. 

Four, reciprocity, five, ownership, six, confidentiality, seven, authenticity, and eight, reflection. 
So let's head into that first principle that we're going to explore together. Clear, shared intention. And what actually does that mean and why is it indeed important? So we are seeking together to understand a mentoring program that sits within an organisation. And we're going to share the discussions with the mentee who we're going to be working with. So it's not just going to be the mentor understands the program and the mentee is on the outside. It's actually going to be both people sharing a conversation.

Its about the intention of the program. We're also going to recognise together the notion of a growth mindset. And this is some research done by Carol Dweck. And what she says is that a growth mindset acknowledges the fact basically that we don't know everything, but we're willing to investigate. And we're willing to acknowledge when we make mistakes in order to be better at what we do. 

 The second principle is that spirit of equality. So we need to be crystal clear about this, that mentors and mentees are equal partners. They share the power in this relationship. The mentor is not the superior, not the boss, not the leader, but they are collaborators together. So, this means that they share influence and they share the voice in their mentoring sessions. 

 The third principle is enlightened observation. If we are observing the mentee teaching or the mentee is observing the mentor teaching, we do that with a positive approach. And we ask questions to inform our understanding, and once again, we reframe challenges that we see in those observations as opportunities for growth, things that we can actually learn from in the future. 

 Reciprocity is the next one. This notion, I think, is really interesting in that it looks to see that each person learns from the other. So mentors can expect to learn things from their mentees. The mentees can expect to learn things from their mentors. So the interactions become a vehicle really for mutual learning, which is gold in a mentoring program. So it provides us with that real opportunity to share ideas and practice. And that idea of a mutual exchange, where you can take the ideas that you see and you can adapt them within your own environment. 

 The next principle is around ownership. And this means that you actually own your skills as they are developing. Nobody began a mentoring program on day one being an expert. We all went through a process of learning as we went. So we have the best intentions for our mentoring interactions, but I think we also need to be proud of what we are doing and of the way that we're learning in this new role. 

 Confidentiality is the next, the 6th of the principles, and we are looking at always maintaining the confidentiality of the mentee. So this is vitally important that we don't report our mentoring conversations to a leader to a manager to a direct report. What we said in those mentoring sessions is actually entirely confidential. And if somebody wants some feedback around the program, we can do that talking about general themes, but definitely not about a conversation with a mentee. So this notion of confidentiality also acknowledges that there's an opportunity for development.

We are not skilled mentors on our first day of mentoring. And we're going to investigate together, the mentor and the mentee together, what opportunities exist for us to solve problems collaboratively and work as a team within that confidential space. 

 The 7th principle is the notion of authenticity. And I think this is really lovely, that we share our best self, we share our best intentions, that we have a spirit of honesty when we interact with people in the program. And sometimes that might mean that we can share past challenges that we have indeed had, and we can share some of the ways that we resolved those on a continual journey. This notion of mentoring is not a linear experience, it's a continual experience for us. 

 The last principle for today in this topic, we're going to look at the important notion of reflection. So we reflect on our practice all the way through a mentoring program and we look at what have we done really well and what can be improved. We can also reflect as mentors on the way that we shared the conversation with the mentee. We can reflect on what learning the mentee has offered us. And we can indeed reflect on the entire program that we are part of and how that might be improved in the future? 

 So that is the end of topic two and we're moving now into topic three, which looks at reflection questions about the content of this video. so let's have a look at our reflection questions for today. We're looking at what is the purpose of mentoring principles? Why do we have them? Which of the eight principles resonated with you as you began mentoring? Which principle will take some time to fully understand? 
and practice? What challenged you today and what was a key learning for you today? 

So to review our session today, we have looked at mentoring principles, we've looked at the 8 principles, and we've looked at a series of reflection questions. 
Here is the bookend for the learning intention that comes at the beginning and in this case, at the end of the session. We have been learning about the principles that underpin effective mentoring programs within the automotive and mining sectors. 
And this brings us to the end of this video. If you'd like to keep building your understanding of mentoring, you can certainly watch the other videos in the series and explore more resources available in the AUSMASA VET Resource Hub. Thanks for joining today. 

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