Are you a mentor? I know I am…

Did you know that January is National Mentoring M<onth and the 17th is International Mentoring Awareness day – a day to promote the invaluable practice of mentoring.

Founded in 2016, this year’s theme is – ‘mentoring others to help your community’.

What is mentoring?

There are many definitions of mentoring, but one is that it is a professional relationship where a more experienced person (the mentor) helps a less experienced person to develop their skills, knowledge and professional growth.

There are many different kinds of mentoring: peer mentoring; academic mentoring, professional mentoring (where a mentor gets paid) and career mentoring to name a few.

Mentoring is used in business, academia, schools and in the voluntary sector in a variety of ways. There are non-profit mentoring organisations aimed to help specific groups, such as disabled people, or people from minority ethnic backgrounds. These include:

• The Prince’s Trust now The King’s Trust
• The Windsor Fellowship
• UpRising
• CityDisabilities

There are also mentor schemes to encourage people from under-represented groups to enter particular careers or professions. These include:

• Black Solicitors Network
• ScreenSkills
• The Women’s Engineering Society (WES)
• Code First Girls

Mentoring is often seen as a voluntary occupation however, if you work for an organisation it may be that mentoring is part of the expectation of your role – to take less established people under your wing and mentor them. But also, there are plenty of occasions where people with expertise are paid to mentor others, so it can be both a paid and a voluntary activity. As you’ve heard me say on many occasions, I value my time, therefore, I expect to be paid to impart my skill and knowledge to others – and many mentors feel the same.

PR and International Mentoring Month/Day

During this month and on this day it’s a good time for mentors to engage with followers on their social media platforms, informing them about what they do and how they do it.

Some ideas:

• share their success stories
• share testimonials from mentees about their experiences and how mentoring has had an impact on them.
• Share how the act of mentoring impacted on your own learning and practice.
• talk about the practicalities of how you work with mentees
• without naming names, talk about the mentor/mentee relationship – give tips and advice to help other embarking on mentoring.
• encourage others to become mentors
• share information about how people can be involved in mentoring with you
• share information about how people can be involved in mentoring programs in your community

To aid those of you who don’t know how to make a start to mentor, or how to make themselves visible online, Scott Media now has an offering to mentor people to get them PR ready. It’s a year-long commitment for a monthly fee (£250 plus VAT per month).

What will this look like?

• You will receive 30 minutes of 1-2-1 support each month.
• Access to the Press Pack (an online Scott Media Facebook group sharing hints, tips and media opportunities)
• Two detailed power hours across a year on top of 30 minutes support above to write a press release or cover any other issue around marketing or business growth in detail.
• Access to Scott Media Speakers – to start understanding the value of professional speaking.
• Introductions to other trusted professionals who can help e.g. Website designers; business coaches/trainers; personal branding specialists and professional speaker trainers.
• Accountability for both you and any expert you work with to ensure deadlines are met.
• Seven days a week access via WhatsApp to the Scott Media team to ask questions as they arise.
• Discounts of any Scott Media courses or offers during the contract period.

If you would like to talk to me about my Get PR Ready Programme, please contact me on: