GETTING STARTED: A GUIDE TO YOUR EVALUATION MENTORING RELATIONSHIP Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) Mentoring Initiative pilot Congratulations on taking the first step to beginning your mentoring relationship as a mentor / mentee with the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) Mentoring Initiative pilot. This short guide is designed to explain the pilot project for evaluators including what mentoring is and what the process is to be a mentor / mentee. It is important to read this guide before you complete your registration on the Mentoring Initiative website so that you have a better understanding of what the pilot project entails. We suggest that it would be very helpful to both mentors/mentees to refresh themselves on the Canadian Evaluation Society competencies as they are intended to form the foundation of any mentoring relationship formed. The competencies are used as the main criteria for the matching process and can be used to structure the goals of the mentoring relationship. https://www.evaluationcanada.ca/competencies- canadian- evaluators This guide will also support the development of your mentoring relationship by providing you with some recommended steps to take into consideration when you are getting started. The guide is meant to provide suggestions to follow but it is important to note that there is no single recipe to forming a useful and meaningful mentoring relationship. Like any other relationship, it may take several attempts to find a useful match. Don t give up. It may be most helpful to track your mentoring relationship commitments in a formal way. Examples of templates to help track agreed upon commitments are available as a separate document under the Resources section of the EMC website. If you have any examples that you find useful, please feel free to share them with us. Defining Mentorship For purposes of the CES Mentoring Initiative pilot, mentoring is defined as a non- hierarchical developmental relationship whereby the mentor is an individual, traditionally considered to be more experienced or with a specialized skill set, who provides a more mentee with evaluation- related career guidance (e.g., supporting career progress, providing feedback, promoting visibility, etc.) and role- modelling functions, and further characterized by support, advice and guidance helping the mentee build confidence to develop the skills required to succeed professionally. The mentor often stands to benefit as much as the mentee. REGISTRATION Evaluators interested in being a mentor or mentee will register through the www.evaluationmentoringcanada.ca website. For the duration of the pilot, registration for mentors and mentees is limited to members of the Canadian Evaluation Society as a benefit of membership. This is in support of the professional development priorities of CES members to advance their evaluation competencies and skills, and of course factoring in the administrative costs of running the initiative. Participants will be emailed an access code, upon which they can complete a profile that includes their personal information and evaluation related competencies. Based on these details mentees will be able to look for a match and send an initial contact to a prospective mentor. Page 1
PRE- MEETING Once you have selected a prospective mentor / mentee you will need to do some preparation prior to meeting each other. Questions to consider prior to your first meeting include: How will you both connect with each other for your first meeting (in person, by Skype, phone, or other)? What expectations do you have regarding the mentorship relationship? How will you manage your expectations so they are achieved? How will you monitor your mentorship relationship over time to track whether it is helping you achieve your objectives as a mentor / mentee? What actions need to be taken if your expectations are not achieved? FIRST MEETING Getting to Know Each Other The most important part of beginning your relationship and the mentoring process is for the mentor and mentee to get to know a little bit about each other. You also need to clarify what the goals of the mentee are and how the relationship may support progress towards those goals. As part of getting to know each other you may each share an overview of your: decision to be a mentor / mentee educational background current job and work environment work experiences preferred learning styles preferred work styles respective availability goals for the mentorship relationship (both mentors and mentees) expectation of how long the relationship will last definition of a successful mentoring relationship It is useful to jointly draft goals and expectations for the relationship, which may include: Mentees Describe your specific career goals and your vision for your future; also review what you identified as your learning and career development needs based on your profile and how you self- rated your evaluation competencies. Mentors Review the Canadian Evaluation Society evaluation competencies (English / French) and aspects of career development that you feel comfortable providing mentorship around. Additional questions that might be discussed, could include the following: What do you hope to achieve within the next 3-5 years as an evaluator? How do these relate to your current job? What are your greatest strengths as an evaluator? What are the areas would you like to improve as an evaluator? What do you think are some of the most important skills or types of knowledge you need to make progress towards your 3-5 year goals? What resources, people, or opportunities do you have access to that could help you make progress towards your 3-5 year goals? Page 2
As you wrap up your first meeting, confirm how you will make arrangements to schedule your 2 nd meeting in the next few weeks. SECOND MEETING- Developing your Mentorship Agreement and Formalizing your Mentoring Action Plan A mentorship agreement helps to clarify expectations and to define boundaries of the mentoring relationship. The second meeting focuses on developing the mentorship agreement. The areas of the mentorship agreement to be discussed (and documented as needed) include: Mentorship Goals The mentee describes their mentorship goals based on their identified learning and career need areas. Together the mentor and mentee answer the question, What do we agree are the general goals and initial focus of our mentorship relationship? Boundaries Boundaries are placed on the mentor / mentee relationship, highlighting the areas that each person is willing to share and each would like to remain confidential. Possible questions to help define the boundaries include: What items will you need to talk about? Is there anything you should not discuss? How will you maintain an appropriate level of confidentiality throughout your mentorship relationship? Schedule The mentee and mentor decide how long they think the relationship will last as well as when and how frequently they will meet. They will also create a meeting schedule. It is suggested to have a 3-6 month initial period or at least a three- month formal check- in where mentor and mentee can determine if the relationship is working and if it should continue. A preferred method of communication (in person, Skype, phone, other) and an established communication schedule should be discussed. Some examples of questions you may discuss include: How often will you meet? o When and where and how? How will you communicate between mentorship meetings? How will you handle rescheduling meetings? Accountability Represents areas in which the mentor / mentee wants to jointly be held responsible for successes and failures of the relationship. It is important to discuss how information regarding performance will be shared between the mentor and mentee. Some examples of questions you might discuss include: How can you both monitor progress? In what ways will you hold yourselves accountable? What are you prepared to be accountable for as a mentor / mentee? In addition to developing your mentorship agreement during your second meeting, this is the time when the mentor and mentee discuss and collaborate on developing an Action Plan (sometimes called a Mentorship Action Plan). This stage of the relationship is a collaborative effort as both mentor and mentee discuss a plan of action. However, the mentee should hold the pen on their Mentorship Action Plan as it is developed. Mentors can be a wealth of knowledge during this stage by sharing resources, developmental ideas and opportunities. To develop your Action Plan, consider the following steps: Step 1 - List your mentorship goals in order of priority. Page 3
Step 2 - Create a List of Learning Activities The most successful plans are those that have a range of learning activities that encourage the mentee to take specific, identifiable actions such as: Learning by doing (ex. special projects, writing a memo, etc.) Learning from others (ex. shadowing, situational mentorship, etc.) Learning from challenging experiences or stretch assignments (ex. a project outside of the department, a leadership role, etc.) Step 3 - Create a timeline including how many hours, days or weeks it will take to complete each activity in each of the competency areas in which your mentoring relationship was established. Step 4 - Implement your Mentorship Action Plan SUBSEQUENT MEETINGS Begin the meeting by spending some time building rapport Set expectations for the meeting State what you want to achieve from the meeting Update each other on the events/actions since the last meeting Debrief on issues Discuss successes and challenges o What happened? o Why? o What can you learn from them? Discuss what actions have been taken to integrate learning Discuss what will you do next time Review expectations of the mentor / mentee relationship Are mentor s expectations being met? Are mentee s expectations being met? o If not, what needs to happen to ensure expectations are being met? Confirm progress or changes to your action plan What action is required? By when? Decide on a date for next meeting Summarize agreements and commitments by using an agreed form of documentation (an example is attached). FORMAL CHECK- IN/CLOSING: Like most working relationships it is normal for many mentorship relationships to conclude (and for new ones to begin). As mentioned earlier, it is suggested to have a 3-6 month initial period or at least a three month formal check- in where mentor and mentee can determine if the relationship is working and whether it should it continue. The formal check- in may look at some of the following issues: What has been accomplished? What is left to be accomplished? How has the relationship been working? Page 4
Does the mentor / mentee want to continue the relationship for an additional period of time? How long? Was movement in the competency areas achieved in your mentoring relationship? If you decide to continue the relationship, make sure you have reviewed your mentorship agreement and action plan as needed and have fun! If you have decided that both mentor and mentee have accomplished what they had set out to achieve and that it is time to move on from this particular mentorship relationship, here are some suggested ideas as to how you can close the relationship. It is important to plan for continued success after the formal mentorship relationship has come to an end. The focus of the closing meeting is to discuss what the mentee still needs for continued success and to develop a plan as to how they will attain it. This may involve: Reflecting on accomplishments, challenges, and progress towards goals; o What will you remember most about the relationship? o What challenges lie ahead? Exploring other types of support you may still need; Discussing whether the relationship will continue informally (and how you will implement it); and Expressing thanks and best wishes! Page 5
Several resources were consulted in developing this Getting Started Guide for Evaluation Mentoring Canada. American Society for Association Executives (ASAE). "Checklist For Getting Started." asae The Center for Association Leadership. 2011. http://www.asaecenter.org/files/checklist%20for%20getting%20started%20with%20a%20mentor%20or% 20Mentee.pdf (accessed January 2013). California Governor's Mentoring Partnership. "Mentor Guidelines and Code of Conduct." Canadian Evaluation Society. Competencies for Canadian Evaluation Practice (English). 2010. http://www.evaluationcanada.ca/txt/2_competencies_cdn_evaluation_practice.pdf (accessed January 2013). Center for the Public Health Institute, A Center for Health Leadership and Practice. "Mentoring Guide: a Guide for Protégés." Dialogue for Health. 2012. http://www.dialogue4health.org/phip/chlp.html (accessed January 213). Cornell University. Cornell Alumni- Student Mentoring Program. 2013. http://dos.cornell.edu/intercultural/casmp/alumni/index.cfm (accessed January 2013). National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). "1st 3 Mentoring Meetings." NASA Leadership and Management Development. February 2011. http://leadership.nasa.gov/ (accessed January 2013). Société canadienne d'évaluation. Compétences professionnelles requises à l'exercice de l'évaluation au Canada. 2013. http://www.evaluationcanada.ca/site.cgi?s=5&ss=11&_lang=fr (accessed January 2013). The Performance Attitude. "Mentoring Meeting Guidelines." The Performance Attitude. 2009. http://www.theperformanceattitude.com/images/mentoringmeetingguidelines.pdf (accessed January 2013). Page 6