Mentoring LWV Members

Mentoring LWV Members

mentoring

What is Mentoring?

 

mentor

Mentoring provides the opportunity for non-profits to thrive through sharing and collaboration. Whether focused on employees, youth participants or organization members, nonprofit mentoring can help people feel safe, guided and more personally connected to the overall mission.

It’s normal to go into mentoring being unsure of what impact it will make, not realizing that you have the opportunity to create a positive shift in the life of a new member of our organization that will impact generations of members to come.

With this in mind, the following links will, hopefully, provide you with the necessary understanding of concepts, the type of environment needed for meetings, activities, and examples of how you can make your mentorship experience a success for both you, the mentee, and the LWVDE, as an organization.. 

Why Mentoring is Important to the League of Women Voters of Delaware (LWVDE)

If an organization wants to introduce mentoring across their organization, they may do so with the goal of:
      • Reducing member turnover
      • Increasing engagement among members 
      • Planning for leadership succession
      • Promoting diversity and inclusion
      • Attracting and retaining top talent
      • Building up future leaders and high potential members
Mentee's goals for a mentoring relationship could include:
      • Skill development
      • Involvement in LWVDE
      • Networking
      • Learn the organization's culture
      • Problem-solving skills
Mentor’s goals for helping their mentee may be:
      • Growing their leadership skills
      • Developing a reputation as an advisor and guide for others
      • Strengthening their emotional intelligence and communication skills
      • Gaining new perspectives
Being a mentor is being a listener, a guide, a support, a cheerleader, providing insight, and fostering success in others. Here are a few qualities that all mentors share:
      • A sincere desire to connect with a LWVDE member
      • Respecting that member
      • Active listening skills
      • Empathy
      • Ability to see solutions and opportunities
      • Flexibility
In order for the League of LWVDE to contiue to grow our membership, for members to be open to new skills, and to share their experiences with others, the LWVDE mentor program must include the following:
      • Reciprocity. The presence of reciprocity and mutuality in mentoring relationship frequently surprises first-time Mentors. What this means is that each partner, the mentor and the mentee has specific responsibilities, contributes to the relationship and learns from the other. In fact, the mentor can often learn a lot from the mentee during the life of the relationship. 
      • Learning. Without the presence of learning, mentoring really doesn’t exist. It is the purpose, the process, and the product of a mentoring relationship, and that’s why it’s essential that you view your mentees as learners and see yourself as a learning facilitator, and at times, the learner.
      • Relationahip. Strong mentoring relationships motivate, inspire, and support learning and development. From the beginning, both mentor and mentee must be open and trusting and honor each other’s uniqueness. Both partners need to work at establishing, maintaining, and strengthening the relationship through time

TOPICS

(the following links will be on seperate pages)

LWV  Why mentoring? What is it not?

LWV  Guiding principles

LWV  Goals for a mentoring relationship

LWV  Roles of mentor

LWV  Roles of mentee

LWV  Resources for those with "Inquiring Minds"

(those who always want to know more on a topic)