Danny Pape, Center for Career Engagement and Sarah Smith, Career Center at Regis University, Denver CO
Mentorship is such a buzzword in our field as we support students but we often forget about how mentorship can support our colleagues and teams. Also, we often get caught thinking mentorship takes one form, the experienced helping someone new in the profession but peer to peer can just as powerful if not more. The presenters will focus on why peer collaborative mentorships are important, how to form and create these relationships, strategies to have a successful mentorship, and to help attendees leave with an action plan of next steps.
The mentor/mentee relationship is usually unequal, one-side, and based off the mentor’s expertise and the mentee’s goals. The definition of mentorship is a period of time during which a person receives guidance from a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or educational institution. Although, the traditional sense of mentorship is beneficial for many reasons, including to learn from those with more experience than yourself, there is another mentor relationship that can be just as beneficial, if not more. A peer collaborative mentorship. This form of mentorship revolves around the idea of Student Affairs employees in similar positions (i.e., director to director, assistant director to assistant director, functional area to functional area, etc.) and experience level outside of their organization to create a mentor relationship. The relationship is mutually beneficial, equal, and collaborative. Both people are the mentor and mentee. It often can be lonely in a role in Student Affairs depending on your institution, team size, team model, and who you report to. As an example, career services can often be isolating at your institution, where even your leadership do not really understand or relate to the work we do. In addition, some positions are isolating because the staff member in that role are the only person on the team doing that work (i.e., employer relations).
In a peer collaborative mentorship, the relationship is mutually beneficial, equal, supportive, and collaborative. The goal of the relationship is a partnership that will ultimately help you grow professionally and to reach your personal career goals through sharing ideas, receiving constructive feedback, feeling supported, and growing personally and professionally. The benefits of a peer collaborative mentorship are to receive guidance and support from a respected member of a different campus community, encourage renewed ideas and perspectives on one’s leadership role, support use and development of key competencies leading to growth, having a confidential sounding board for ideas and challenges, and greater awareness of other approaches to work.
This presentation focuses on why peer collaborative mentorships are important, how to form and create these relationships, strategies to have a successful mentorship, and to help attendees leave with an action plan of next steps.
This session will be taught in a traditional conference format of two presenters speaking on an important topic and there will be opportunities for audience engagement throughout.