Mentoring: creating meaning by sharing knowledge, values, and skills

Interviewer: Today, I'm interviewing Dr. Deborah Heiser, CEO of The Mentor Project about mentoring, what it is and what it is not in the world of business, and when preparing to enter that world. A link to Dr. Heiser's biography and to The Mentor Project accompanies this interview. Dr. Heiser, thank you for sparing the time. Let's get started with the obvious questions. What is mentoring, and what are its relationships to those twin pillars of education, teaching and learning? Dr. Heiser. Dr. Heiser: Well, mentoring is a relationship between two individuals where we have one who is either hierarchically someone who is above someone else mentoring someone, or laterally, two people who are at the same level where they're sharing their expertise with one another. The key is that the other has to accept and utilize that knowledge, skill, and value. Mentoring is sharing knowledge, values, and skills. What it is not is just putting knowledge out into the world. It has to be accepted by the mentee, and that's one of the key things that I really like to talk about when I'm talking about it with regard to The Mentor Project. Why I think that's so important is because when we're teaching, when we're in a setting where we're looking to have individuals learn it really is something that if you just put information out there and it doesn't land, that's not mentoring. It has to be a very reciprocal relationship