Mentoring and Self Leadership

• Mentoring is a semi-structured mentoring programme in which an individual contributes their expertise to help others advance in their personal and professional life. Mentors must be easily accessible and ready to provide assistance when needed within predetermined parameters.
• It’s common for mentors to have their own mentors, and mentees to want to “give something back” by becoming mentors themselves. This creates a chain reaction that helps to “pass on” best practises so that the advantages may be shared broadly.
• Mentoring may be a long-term relationship, lasting years, or it can be temporary, lasting until the partnership’s initial purpose is met or terminated.
• There is more to mentoring than just “offering advise” or sharing your experiences in a certain field or circumstance. It’s about enabling and inspiring the other person to recognise their own problems and objectives, and then supporting them in discovering solutions or ways to achieve them—not by doing it for them or expecting them to “do it the way I did it,” but by appreciating and understanding various approaches to problem-solving.
• Although the mentor may assist the mentee in obtaining more specialised forms of assistance if it is determined that this would be the best course of action, mentoring is not the same as counselling or therapy.
• What are the duties of mentors?
• Mentors provide an unbiased ear and serve as a sounding board. Their questioning style encourages mentees to consider problems from several angles and focuses on problem-solving, decision-making, and finding solutions. They promote approaches outside of their mentee’s comfort zone and question conventional wisdom.
• Mentors may help mentees develop their working abilities and become ready for professional employment. They set higher standards for mentee potential and provide direction, assistance, inspiration, and helpful criticism.
• What effect does mentoring have?
• The lives of mentees may be significantly improved by mentoring, which benefits our communities, economy, and nation as a whole.
• A loving adult’s continuous, unwavering presence in a young person’s life might be the difference between that person finishing school or not, choosing wisely or acting recklessly, and reaching their full potential or not.
• Adolescents who have mentors, particularly those who are considered at-risk, tend to have more optimistic outlooks on life. Additionally, they have greater success in their communities, workplaces, and educational institutions.
• Self-Mentoring
• The process of “self-mentoring” is putting together a realistic, accurate evaluation of your own strengths and flaws in order to create your “ideal self,” which will help you achieve your goals for professional advancement, work performance, or personal growth. This practise is a four-stage paradigm that incorporates self-awareness, self-development, self-reflection, and self-monitoring. It is appropriate for people of any age, career, gender, race, or ability.
• The author is the registered trademark holder of the phrase “self-mentoring.” Copyrights are not applicable to registered trademarks.
• Self-mentoring aims to help people better use their abilities and stay on course while navigating the inevitable ups and downs of advancing in their lives and careers. Self-mentoring is more than just an attitude; it’s an integrated set of tactics and abilities that may make you, at any age or stage of life, more perceptive, proactive, and inventive in embracing change and making progress in the area or areas of your life that you choose.
• The ideas, abilities, and talents of self-mentoring function by strengthening and supplementing the fundamental abilities that each of us needs to succeed in our chosen fields of work: inspiring, leading, selling, listening, making decisions, and solving problems, to mention a few.
• There are several advantages to self-mentoring techniques while transitioning to new roles. This is particularly true in an academic environment. Within the parameters of the university’s performance standards, assessment processes, and promotion choices, academic careers are often self-directed. Applying self-mentoring methods seems to increase self-efficacy and self-esteem, according to research. Consequently, this strengthens ties to and dedication to the organisation.
• The process of applying and adjusting to self-mentoring abilities is shown by the personal example that follows. An teacher in higher education is involved in this case.
• The challenges faced by a superintendent moving into a higher education role gave rise to the comprehensive idea of self-mentoring, with all four levels integrated. She continued to feel a gap between her appointed mentor and herself at her new university job, which she found burdensome. Her mentor was more than capable and knowledgeable, but their connection didn’t work well and wasn’t fulfilling its intended role. The faculty member developed self-mentoring as a coping mechanism to endure her new responsibility, despite the intricacy of the experience.
• As she developed the process of self-mentoring, the new hire made use of both her natural and acquired leadership abilities. She devised a survival strategy that included establishing goals, developing tactics, obtaining and evaluating information, networking, and keeping an eye on developments. Satisfied with her achievements at the end of her first year, she kept working and, more significantly, started teaching others about the techniques she had appropriately termed “self-mentoring.” The fundamental principle behind this idea is “You are your own best tutor” (Bond & Hargreaves, 2014). According to Kimberly Horn (2013), there will always be instances throughout a person’s career when the ideal mentor-mentee match isn’t made. At this point, self-mentoring emerges as the ideal choice for adjusting to the change or changes and developing both personally and professionally as a consequence.
• This former superintendent overcame challenges to transition into a university practitioner post by engaging in self-mentoring. Three esteemed academic honours were given to this professor in recognition of the establishment and continuation of this practise. These days, self-mentorship extends beyond the educational setting and has an influence on student leadership, weight reduction programmes, mentoring, and executive coaching experiences.
• Individual Leadership
• Most self-led individuals make their own choices and establish their own goals. This kind of skill is common among elite managers, mentors, and entrepreneurs.
• When someone is self-aware, takes independent decisions, and shows a commitment to reaching his objectives, we say that person has self-leadership qualities.
• In addition to goal-setting, self-awareness is another quality that distinguishes excellent self-leaders. All managers need to be capable of self-leadership.
• The value of personal leadership
• The first phase or degree of leadership is self-leadership. Employee self-leadership is crucial, whether they are managers or regular subordinates.
• You either get very little or no oversight in your role as manager. This implies that you have to be able to independently organise, establish your goals, and persuade yourself to stick to them.
• As a lower level employee, you never know what sort of leaders or management you may encounter during your career. It should be possible for you to demonstrate self-leadership regardless of the kind of leadership you encounter, whether it authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire. Employers value employees who can make wise judgments on their own and motivate themselves to do well.
• Self-leadership enables the person to be proactive, self-disciplined, and an autonomous decision maker. Individuals who lack a strong sense of self-leadership often lack concentration, feel helpless, and get overwhelmed quickly.
• How to become a better self-leader
• Without a doubt, self-leadership is a desirable trait. These four pointers ought to assist you in developing your self-leadership abilities.
• Purpose clarity.
• Every group or leader have a vision. Your vision or mission will serve as the cornerstone upon which you erect self-leadership since you are your own leader. You run the risk of being stranded in the middle of nowhere if you attempt to live your life according to other people’s plans or ideas for it without having clear aims or a purpose.
• Take calculated chances and aim for success.
• Taking risks is a necessary part of living. Make it a challenge to take on risky ventures. Don’t let your previous failures—your own or others’—depress you; instead, concentrate on your achievements. But they should be risks that are pertinent to your goal and are fairly measured.
• Take some time to consider your life.
• Even if you’re still the one doing the things you do actively, you can just be seeing things from your point of view. Take some time to think back on your life and assess how your aspirations for the future and the past compare to the present. You may never see some little flaws in yourself unless you spend some time to reflect on yourself. Allowing someone to evaluate you objectively is another way to reflect.
• Never put up with anything.

Your vision cannot be jeopardised. Any offer or thought that does not align with your vision should make you intolerant. This intolerance extends not only to other people but also to you. It entails avoiding putting up with bad traits like apathy, shyness, or fear, among others.