Me as a mentor: What it means to help others.

By Iti Awosika

Mentoring

Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person.

Introduction

My audio and visual presentation focuses on me as a mentor and how I can and have used my mentoring skills to help others. This presentation deals with mentoring from different perspectives, including the view of me (the mentor) the individuals being mentored and other mentors.

Key Concepts

Representation: Refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such as representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures. (Daniel Chandler’s definition)

In relation to me being a mentor I will focus on how I can be represented and how important it is for me to be represented in a good way.

Power: Control and influence over other people and their actions.

In relation to me being a mentor I will show the power that I possess as mentor.

Inspirational Quotations on Power I have chosen a few inspirational quotations by people

that I think have really grasped the understanding of how to use power effectively.

‘You see what power is- holding someone else’s fear in your hand and showing it to them’. -Amy Tan. I think that Tan really understands how the power that you, as an individual are able to use to in some ways make a change to someone’s life. In terms of mentorship ‘holding someone else’s fear in your hand’ is vital because you need to be a able to take on someone else’s fears in order to teach them how to overcome them.

‘ The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good’ – Baltasar Gracian. Gracian has emphasised what I think is the most effective factor of being in a position of power and that is to ‘do more good’, by being able to do good you can help others.

As a mentor I find these quotations very inspirational.

Power

Power to help? Power to make a change? Power to lend a helping hand Having power as a mentor gives me the

ability to impose my views on others either directly or indirectly or with force. I believe the greater power you have the greater the ability you have to make a greater change.

Some famous leaders who inspire me as a mentor

All of these leaders have inspired me in different ways. They have taught me that no matter what gender or race you are you still have the power to be a leader and make some sort of change.

Leadership

Tedeschi & Lindskold (1976): leadership consists of an impact on the way people interact, a set of actions and a sense of power.

When making reference to mentorship being a leader is very important, you need to be able to ‘lead’ those that you mentor in the right direction. When you are put in the position of a leader it is important that you do not let it go to your head because it can compromise your position in different ways such as your mentees feeling like they are being controlled if they feel this way it can defeat the whole purpose of mentorship.

The different types of leadership styles

Mentoring involves some aspects of leadership, in some respects the job of a mentor is to lead to lead people into the right direction in life.

Laissez-faire identified leadership as a distinct decision made by whoever can make them.

There are many different types of leadership styles 1. Autocratic: This is leadership by command; the leader is the sole

source of decisions. As a mentor this is not the ideal leadership style because it is important that you are able to share decisions with those that you mentor.

2. Collective: Decisions are made by the whole group together. Being a mentor I would have to say that this is the best leadership style. It is necessary that you and the individuals that you mentor are able to make decisions together and that you have a shared understanding.

3.Democratic:Decisions are made by the group or it representatives

Video by dungy ..What mentoring means to him (as a coach)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ZH1T8ZLRc

This video is about a mentor dungy he is talking about what it means to be a mentor and a leader from his perspective, and who he believes the greatest leader is.

Mentoring and what it means to me

To me being a mentor means to be a helper, to use my knowledge to guide and help others. A mentor can act as a friend, sister and a leader amongst many other things.

Being a mentor is not a role that people are born with it is, you have to earn it. It is and Achieved role.

An Achieved role or status is a social position or role that a person acquires through some effort or accomplishment of his or her own, For example being a mentor. Whereas being a sister is an ascribed role/status a kind of status that is conferred by society at birth such as being a sister. Sometimes “Ascribed status’’ contrasts with “Achieved status” in that this achievement is gained voluntarily and generally speaking, by merit.

Audio recording of me

This is a video clip of me, talking about how my mentoring skills have helped those that I mentor.

Audio recording of mentees

This is a voice clip of some of the girls that I mentor, talking about how my mentoring skills have helped them through different situations.

How have my mentoring skills helped you?

Mentoring it means a lot to me I hope that I have inspired you in some way to help a lending hand.