Mentoring Reflection

Lewis (2009) offers the important areas to consider in the first session with a mentoree. It helps to shed light on how a journey of mentoring looks like. “The purpose of the first meeting is simply to get to know each other a little better, to get a sense of each other’s heart and values, and to discover an approach to mentoring which appeals to both people.” (Lewis, 2009, p. 97).
The first communication with the mentoree will give the first hints of how the journey is going to be like. This is because, as Lewis says, mentoring is a journey and at the beginning nobody knows how it will be like. The second thing a mentor is supposed to do is to assess the conditions. This is done through mentees introduction of himself or herself and the background. Lewis says it is important to note down some of the things for future reference. The next thing to do is mapping the location. This is the mentees condition as he or she is in the present. Lewis says that this

It will help me to know where to begin, how to go about it and where to end.
The challenges pertaining to mentoring.
Lewis (2009) provides potential areas for challenges in mentoring. They include: physical distance, gender divide, cross cultural mentoring, Physical pitfalls through; transference, projection, dependence and co – dependence. The following are just a few examples of challenges that I am likely to face in mentoring my intern: time constraints, over – dependence of the intern, balance between perfection and growth, overcoming insecurity.
The following are some of the ways in which the challenges may manifest and possible mitigations on each of them:
Transference – as Lewis (2009) puts it, transference may manifest itself through past life hurts. I believe it may come from either the mentor or the mentee. I think dealing with this requires debriefing for both myself as a mentor and also the mentee as described by Pue