Mentorship

I haven't been here in a minute! Hi beautiful souls. The changing of the website has taken longer than I thought but thank God it's done. Also remember, that was my first time building a proper website! I am grateful to be back here, blogging. Check out all the website features. We have a prayer request form that requires your name, email and the prayer request. We also have a prayer wall where we write prayers sent in by different people. This helps to get more people praying for you. We don't write names unless you so wish. The magazine is also taking a lot of my time but I will adapt as time goes on. I've had a few enquiries about mentorship and I thought I'd upload a short e-book about it but it's not going to happen anytime soon. So, I have decided to share about it here. I will have a bit more details in the next post but also, mentorship programmes look very different for everyone because we all have different needs and goals.

Mentorship is a relationship in which a more experienced or knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The mentor provides guidance, advice and support, often drawing from their own experiences to help the mentee grow personally, professionally and in our case, spiritually.

Mentorship also holds a significant place in the life of a believer as it aligns with the principles of discipleship and nurturing spiritual growth. It reflects the concept of discipleship where believers who are older in the faith and knowledgeable guide and support those who are new in the faith or even those who are older in the faith but are struggling with growth. In the bible, we see Jesus Himself as an epitome of mentorship. He mentored and taught His disciples and told them to go make disciples of all nations.

So why is mentorship important?

There are many reasons that I can share with you but let us look at these six:

Guidance and support where the mentor provides valuable insights and advice that can help the mentee navigate challenges and make informed decisions.

Skill development where new skills are developed in order to improve the existing ones.

Networking opportunities where the mentee can be introduced to the mentor's professional network, providing opportunities for career advancement and collaboration.

Confidence building by means of regular feedback and encouragement from the mentor.

Career growth where the mentee's career development can be accelerated by the provision of targeted advice and fostering of a deeper understanding of industry dynamics.

Spiritual growth where the goal is to help the mentee discover their identity in God, grow closer to Him and do everything in a manner that pleases God.

Mentorship is often confused with coaching. Both are great but different. So what are the differences?

Nature of relationship

Mentorship is more formal and long term. Even when you set out to do it for a certain period of time, it often continues beyond that but with less interaction.

Coaching is often more structured and short term and it emphasises specific skills or performance.

Focus

Mentorship focuses more on personal, professional and spiritual growth.

Coaching focuses more on improving certain skills and performance.

Role of the guide

Mentors share personal experiences and insights.

Coaches facilitate development by applying certain methodologies and techniques.

Origins

Mentorship is initiated by individuals seeking development through a personal, organic process.

Coaching is often professionally arranged.

Outcome orientation

Mentorship emphasises long term career, personal and spiritual development.

Coaching focuses on achieving immediate and defined outcomes.

Both mentorship and coaching are valuable for development but their approaches can be suited to different needs and stages of growth.

In the next blog post, I will share what our mentorship programmes generally look like or how they are basically structured. Individuals have different needs and this means we cannot have a one size fits all programme. Programmes are designed in collaboration with mentees to ensure that they align with the mentees' specific needs and goals. This helps both the mentor and the mentee to have a more personalised and effective experience.

Grace and Peace