Welcome to the NCL Communications Mentoring Scheme!
Communications leads across the North Central London Integrated Care System have volunteered to mentor colleagues to inspire and enable them to realise their full potential.
The scheme will be managed by the NCL ICB Communications and Engagement team and both mentors and mentees will be asked to evaluate their experiences.
We have adopted the definition of mentoring used by the NHS London Leadership Academy.
What is mentoring?
Mentoring is a learning relationship between a mentor (who has more experience) and a mentee (who has less experience) with the primary purpose of driving personal growth, building skills, knowledge and understanding for the mentee.
The mentor brings extensive experience, knowledge, power, and influence to assist the mentee in reaching their potential and goals. The mentee brings their own personal challenges and invites the mentor into their own inner dialogue to help provide insight and intellectual challenge to move them towards their goal.
Mentors may use coaching skills in their conversations, but usually the mentor role is wider than that of a coach and may include opening doors, making connections, and sharing experiences. The relationship is often long term with a developmental focus, unlike coaching which is primarily focused on assisting people with their current performance or immediate potential.
Transformative benefits of mentoring
- Through the knowledge and experience of a mentor, the mentee leapfrogs the learning process, learning to avoid making the same mistakes, by having a personal ‘guide’ who has been through the journey
- Builds confidence, innovation, and creativity through being challenged and inspired
- Encourages you to aim higher, step up and take leadership
- A mentor believes in you, will vouch for you, and shares their network and knowledge to help support you
- Enables a reflective space for learning
What happens during a mentoring session?
A skilled mentor will use a combination of questioning, listening, observation and feedback to create a conversation that is rich in insight and learning. Your mentor will listen to you to find out how you think, how you learn and what your current situation is. They will encourage you to overcome obstacles and take action to move you forward and help you to learn new ways of approaching things.
Mentoring relationships will typically be long term – around a year. Sessions usually last between 45-60 minutes each. The arrangements will be agreed between the mentor and the mentee at the beginning of the relationship and all discussions will be confidential.
Interested in finding a mentor?
Please read the Finding a mentor FAQs and fill in a Mentoring request.
Then have a look at the mentor profiles and get in touch directly with one of your colleagues. Please let us know when you have found a mentor: nclicb.communications@nhs.net
We need more mentors!
If you’d like to support your colleagues to realise their full potential, please do consider becoming a mentor – it’s very rewarding and can help you gain a new perspective on things. Take a look at the Being a mentor FAQs and then all you need to do is complete a short Mentor profile.
Mentoring resources
10 ways to be an amazing mentor
Mentoring: a mutually beneficial partnership
The GROW model of coaching and mentoring
More information
If you have any queries or suggestions, please get in touch: nclicb.communications@nhs.net