What is Mentoring? (April 2008)

Mentoring has been described as “a voluntary and developmental relationship that exists between a person with greater experience and a person with less experience, and which is characterized by mutual trust and respect.”

This description has been primarily applied to mentoring as an internal organizational process that is designed to promote future leadership and management within the organization. It has always been seen as an inherent sub-set of organizational leadership.

As prior military or civilian leaders, we have been involved in mentoring throughout our professional careers; however, often we did not realize that our interaction with subordinates was, in reality, a form of mentoring. Sometimes it was just considered good leadership.

Today, we may not be developing tomorrow’s leaders as much as we were in the past, but we do have an impact on the future leadership of the individuals and organizations with whom we work; through teaching, developing and promoting the professional application of functional processes and actions that will make our client’s even better leaders in their organizations.

In a recent discussion with some of MPRI’s senior leadership the importance of mentoring was reemphasized as it was described being “an institutional pillar” that promotes long-term success and value not only for MPRI, but more importantly for the client with whom we do business every day. Mentoring has always been an important part of the philosophy and work of MPRI.

As each of our mentors develop their skills as mentors, using the Mentoring Process, we will have a positive impact upon the progress of the client and the organization, thereby helping increase the value of their functional skills as technicians, as well as leaders.

Due to the nature of our contracts there may be times that we cannot perform the pure mentoring role of which we are capable; however, in each of our contacts with clients and customers, our knowledge, skills and capabilities will standout as a major benefit of our experience and ability as we transfer that knowledge in a productive and efficient manner.

@ 2008, MPRI, an L-3 division

Mentor Partnerships

Greetings to the Universe of Mentoring.

I am interested in exchanging lessons learned, professional experiences and ideas regarding the mentoring process.

I invite you to use this site as a clearing house for discussions on mentoring and how we can increase our mentoring skills and help those we have the opportunity to mentor.

I am primarily involved in government mentoring programs and work with preparing mentors to assist international organizations in increasing their capabilities and capacities through interactive mentoring techniques.

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-- Mentor Partner