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Leadership and Management Mentoring Scheme Pilot, 2016
Sarajane Aris*, Esther Cohen Tovee, Amra Rao and Neelam Dosanjh
Leadership and Management Faculty, UK
Submission: April 23, 2017; Published: May 04, 2017
*Corresponding author: Sarajane Aris, Leadership and Management Faculty, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, HPC Registered Practitioner Clinical Psychologist, UK, Email: sarajanearis@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Sarajane A, Esther C T, Amra R, Neelam D. Leadership and Management Mentoring Scheme Pilot, 2016. Psychol Behav Sci Int J. 2017; 3(5) : 555624. DOI: 10.19080/PBSIJ.2017.03.555624
This Presentation - Structure
- Background and context to Mentoring Pilot
- Results so far
- What’s worked well, what needs improving
- Next steps
Background
- Agreed to pilot mentoring scheme by L&M Faculty committee-July 2015.
- Call for mentees and mentors via Leadership and Management email group & CPF September - December 2015
- Pilot commenced Feb-April 2016. 30 mentees (6 male, 24 female) and 22 mentors (5 male, 17 female) completing.
- Mentors and mentees paired
- Based on Aspire Foundation Mentoring scheme, using a 6 session approach via Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp, phone or face to face.
- Support materials offered- 'start up' information for mentors and mentees
- Check in with mentors and mentees; informal feedback requested August 2016.
- Evaluation questionnaire -September-December
- Most pairs completed 6 sessions- at least 4 have decided to continue
- Evaluation data received from
- 17 out of 22 mentors
- 15 out of 30 mentees.
What Worked Well (According to Mentees)
- Improvement of leadership skills: 93% within moderate-extreme rating
- Impact on/enhancement of mastery authority and resilience: 86.7% within moderate-extremely rating
- Impact on effective leadership role: 93.3% moderate- extremely rating; 0% not at all rating
- Impact on effective management role: 85.7%% moderate-extremely rating; 0% not at all rating (Figure 1).
What Worked Well (According to Mentors) IMPACT
- Improvement of leadership skills: 73.3% within moderate-very rating; 0% in extremely rating
- Impact on/enhancement of mastery authority and resilience: 86.7% within moderate-extremely rating
- Impact on effective leadership role: 80% moderate- very rating: 0% in extremely rating
- Impact and enabling effective management role: 78.6% moderate -extremely- 0% not at all.
What Worked Well (According to Mentees)
- Impact on well-being: 86.7% moderately-extremely- 40% rated extremely-6% not at all
- Reducing/managing stress: 80% moderately- extremely- 0% not at all
- Meeting goals and objectives: 100% (moderately- extremely).
What Worked Well (According to Mentors) IMPACT
- Impact on well-being: 81.3% moderately-very- 0% rated extremely
- Reducing/managing stress: 66.7% rated moderately- very - 0% rated extremely- 13.3% not at all
- Meeting goals and objectives: 82.3% moderately- very; 0% rated extremely; 5.9% not at all.
What Worked Well (According to Mentees)
Most frequent comments
- Talking to someone with a wealth of experience of working at this level, especially politics of the services helped me manage more effectively.
- Safe containing space and opportunity to reflect on role with someone outside the organisation and wonder.
- Space to stop, reflect, recognize issues, unhelpful ways of working and develop self care.
- Mentoring bringing a broader perspective.
- Reflecting on and managing staff dynamics.
- Affirming that very senior colleagues are willing to support nurture, challenge and inspire less experienced colleagues.
- A measured compassionate approach, open listening, hearing and validation.
- Mentor sharing personal experiences.
- Hearing about how someone senior also struggles- normalizing, reduces unrealistic expectations
- Opportunity to reflect on leadership styles.
- Career progression-Mentoring supported me, offered a new perspective in career development, role preparation for more senior position.
- Learning how to do things differently, identify barriers to progress and look at ways to overcome these
- Help develop clarity and strategic thinking, to think systemically and frame arguments n. Concrete advice and ideas on how to manage specific issues/talking them through
- Concrete advice and ideas on how to manage specific issues/talking them througho.
- Learning how to position myself in an organization, negotiate and develop influence
- Increased confidence and clarity of thinking
- Recognition of personal strengths, increased self awareness
- Appreciating complexities of work relationships with non psychology professionals around contracting/ commissioning
- Awareness of importance and mechanism of influencing significant people in the organizational hierarchy
- Developing excitement in relation to improving organizational culture through mentoring process
- Learning how to negotiate contracts, prepare publications manage your line manager, focus on personal and professional development
- Learning to delegate, manage staff and demands more effectively, workload management
- Helped develop resilience, sense of personal boundaries, manage stress more effectively and develop well-being.
What Worked Well (According to Mentors)
The Mentoring process itself
- Quick referral, flexibility of sessions, modality
- Scheme non prescriptive, developing openness and transparency
- Sessions via Skype
- Working in a different area
- Being able to make a contribution/ enable another head of psychology with some challenging issues based on personal experience.
What Worked Well (According to Mentors) IMPACT
- Presenting a specific example, identifying team and organizational issues and learning how to intervene effectively
- Facing challenges in career progression
- Taking on tough feedback/becoming more proactive in taking on issues
- Developing strategic thinking
- Broadening perspective and organizational understanding and skills
- Being given permission to take risks/push leadership opportunities
- Planning for difficult conversations
- More confidence to think and act strategically
- Enhanced self care
- Time to reflect on leadership
- Creating a safe containing space to reflect on services and issues
- Reflection on personal style
- Gaining a different perspective
- More focused, taking control in areas avoided prior to mentoring
- Enhanced supervision and communication skills with senior and junior staff increasing leadership skills
- Increased confidence in own decision making and judgement
- Consideration of priorities and career path
- Information/document sharing
- Enhanced self esteem and self confidence.
- Increased resilience and mastery through the development of greater self assurance and belief
- . More authoritative, proactive and willing to engage in the broader picture
- Help to cope with immense and undermining organizational change and influence this
- Normalizing organizational difficulties
- Learned how to bring staff with them
- Effective management of interpersonal conflict
- More focused and able to tolerate specific challenges of managers managing
- More optimism and clearer vision re role of psychology
- More able to lead the team, see things from a managers perspective
- Broader alternative perspectives and ways of managing
- Communicating with colleagues in a more constructive and effective manner
- Increased sense of empowerment, active engagement, self reflection and regulation
- Mentoring process itself can bring about transformation personally, managing workplace stress and challenging issues
- Broader alternative perspectives and ways of managing
- Communicating with colleagues in a more constructive and effective manner
- Increased sense of empowerment, active engagement, self reflection and regulation
- Mentoring process itself can bring about transformation personally, managing workplace stress and challenging issues.
What Needs Changing (According to Mentees)
- More opportunity to process
- Additional support with resources/references/ webinars/references on leadership
- Developing an external prompt e.g. a form to promote reflective thinking
- Support with video links
- Information to tap into such as managing a budget, conducting an investigation
- Chance to meet with other mentees
- Rules around conflicting interests-Unable to share some things as from competing trusts
- Specialist support requirements
- Closer geographic proximity to allow for face to face time
- Scheme to be more widely available
- Ongoing mentoring
- Raising the profile of the mentoring scheme
- Encouragement to others to access it
- Nothing- make it permanent!
What Needs Developing (According to Mentors)
- Meeting twice yearly to develop skills and support, and learn from one another/occasional session on techniques
- Peer group learning sessions
- Webinars, articles, teleconference for mentors to share experiences and for further training
- More background reading, literature
- Mentoring supervision/ mentoring for mentors
- A loose framework of competencies?
- Mentoring DCP Conference/CPF Issue on Mentoring
- Keep monitoring the scheme's effectiveness on roll out.
Next Steps for the Leadership and Management Mentoring Project…
- Mentoring Steering Group set up October 2016
- Bid for Funding of mentoring schemes submitted December 2016 -awaiting DCP Exec approval
- Amalgamation of Junior and Senior Leadership mentoring schemes
- Adopt Junior Psychology Mentoring Scheme model for both schemes - Create list of mentors for mentees to choose a mentor from website - end of January/February 2017?
- Create mentoring scheme across the career span
- Strengthen links with Wellbeing agenda and Inclusion
- Roll out across branches and nations.
Next Steps
- Create various website resources/materials/ mentoring guidelines
- Further update on Mentoring Scheme for CPF and the Psychologist
- Mentoring day workshop- spring summer 2017
- Mentoring Conference - aiming for autumn 2017
- Develop further resources, eg, webinars, teleconferences and other forums for shared learning
- Develop other opportunities for networking, shared learning and development
