One of the books that most influenced my mentoring practice was written in 1999 by Julie Hay called Transformational Mentoring: Creating Developmental Alliances for Changing Organizational Cultures.
In her book she talks about levels of learning:
- Traditional level learning is about how to do things. This is closest to what we call coaching and teaching.
- Transitional learning is about doing things differently. This type of learning comes closest to what we might call counseling..the mentoree accesses levels of awareness and comes to terms with change.
- Transformational learning is learning at the deepest level. The mentoree not only changes his/her perspective as in transitional learning but also has an awareness of the process by which they are doing so.
In each of the above, the mentor plays a different role:
- Traditional level learning the mentor is an expert, coach, teacher
- Transitional learning the mentor is more of a wise counselor
- Transformational level the mentor is more a facilitator of learning
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in understanding how mentors and mentorees learn within the mentoring relationship.
You may also check out some of my FREE resources on mentoring including:
Five Ways Mentoring Can Help Your Company
The Well Leveraged Mentoring Program
Corporate Mentoring Models
5 Main Benefits to an Online System