The mentor should be an enthusiastic ‘people developer’ who facilitates problem solving and
action planning.

Mentors use a range of different skills and techniques depending on their preferred style and the mentee’s needs. Giving advice and guidance or offering suggestions are called ‘push’ techniques where the mentor provides their solution to the mentee’s problem. While advice and guidance can be helpful, the mentee is more likely to learn and take responsibility for their own development if the mentor can take more of a ‘hands-off ’ approach.

Asking questions, listening, summarising and paraphrasing are ‘pull’ techniques where the mentor challenges someone’s thinking in a supportive way and helps them to find their own solutions to the problem.

Benefits for the mentee

Mentoring provides dedicated time for reflection, allowing the mentee to work through any difficulties they may be experiencing in their professional life with the support of their mentor.

A mentor can be thought of as a catalyst that stimulates self-directed change, with a belief in the mentee’s ability to solve his or her own problems. A skilled mentor helps the mentee to ‘think outside the box’, explore different possibilities and gain new perspectives – ‘the light bulb moment’.

The light bulb moment is one of those situations where suddenly everything seems to make sense. It is achieved through a mentor asking relevant questions, listening and challenging the mentee’s assumptions. We don’t often find our own light bulb moments because we have a tendency to get stuck in our own ways of thinking, instinctively viewing situations from our own personal perspective and sometimes we are too close to a situation to see it with clarity. We often describe ‘not being able to see the wood for the trees’ when we are stuck in our thinking.

A mentor’s ‘fresh pair of eyes’ brings a new perspective to a situation when we may believe that we have exhausted all the options. A mentor can also raise our awareness of the assumptions we are making and help us to see a different viewpoint.

That’s enough about what you can offer a mentee. What could it do for you?

Benefits for the mentor

Mentoring develops your communication and problem-solving skills, self-awareness and ability to challenge assumptions. You can learn new perspectives and ways of thinking, and develop your leadership capabilities. Mentoring can also advance your career and mentorship features in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Advanced Pharmacy Framework (APF).

Making a positive contribution to another person’s success through mentorship can be very satisfying. In addition to managing and motivating people, it’s also important that you can help others learn, grow and become more effective in their jobs for the success of your business. Mentoring is key to achieving the ‘developing capability’ dimension of the NHS Healthcare Leadership Model.