A MENTOR has experience and skills developed over the years to train and groom mentees, who seek knowledge in an academic set-up e.g. school, college or university.
The role of a mentor is not only to guide mentees in academic matters but also to realise the untapped talents and hidden skills of mentees in order for them to achieve their potential goals. In the words of famous author Bob Proctor, “A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.”
But in real practice in most educational set-ups, the role of the mentor is reduced to a bare minimum of guiding mentees to reach only their academic goals.
Most of the great achievers in science, philosophy, business, sports and arts have had mentors who inspired them to accomplish their goals. Bill Gates admitted that he referred to his mentor, Warren Buffett, for advice whenever required.
Many teachers have transformed the lives of their mentees. I have experienced and witnessed the power of mentoring and how it helped a second year medical student who wanted to drop out, to successfully pursue the postgraduate degree and doctoral research after completion of the Bachelor Degree in Medicine and Bachelor Degree in Surgery.
Mentoring is a natural trait and is well exhibited in the animal kingdom as well. Taking inspiration from nature, here are some classifications of mentors in the animal kingdom that can be exemplified.
The dolphin: A skilful trainer
Dolphins train their young by releasing live fish they have caught earlier to their calves to fine tune their hunting skills. If the calves fail in their endeavour, the dolphin cow would continue the process until the calves are able to catch the fish. Dolphin mentors never give up on their mentees, even if they are slow progressors. If the mentee is not up to the mark, they keep retraining until knowledge or skill is acquired. Slow achievers need a dolphin mentor.
The falcon: A challenger
Falcons have the habit of dropping their dead prey while flying high to challenge their young to catch it in mid-air. Falcons throw opportunities at their young, to challenge them to take full advantage of them. Falcons do not spoon feed, but expect their young to improve. Likewise, a falcon mentor will challenge his mentee to rise to the occasion to reach certain standards. A proactive mentee, who gets bored with the ordinary approach but need problem-based learning to progress better, needs a falcon mentor.
The queen bee: An influencer
A queen bee has a phenomenal influence on her hive. Similarly, the queen bee-type mentor can exert great influence on mentees who look up to the mentor for guidance and paternal care. These type of mentor is often a role model to the mentee, who is willing to meticulously follow in the footsteps of the mentor. The mentor is empathetic and provides unconditional emotional support, career and personal counselling to the mentee for him to excel in the field of his interest.
The elephant: A dynamic leader
The elephant mentor serves more as co-pilots in the journey along with their mentee. The mentor and mentee usually have similar wavelengths. The wisdom and experience of the matriarch (an old elephant) is passed to the calves without any reservations. Similarly, the elephant mentor shares all his wisdom to train the student in the current journey and for the future, and will guide him on how to overcome any challenges during adversities.
These classification of mentors are unique in their own way. It is in our wisdom to mix and match the traits suitable to the situation to practise “situational mentorship”.
In universities, students find it difficult to connect with their mentor most of the time. One way of overcoming this is to find the hobbies, skills and interests of the mentees and try to map them to the mentor.
For example, if the mentee is a chess player, he can be matched with a mentor who is also a chess player. I have seen mentees who are Harry Potter fans jelling instantly with a mentor, who is also an ardent reader of the Harry Potter book series.
Another mentor, who is a musician formed a music club with his mentees, which became a famous band in college.
The connecting point can be anything from common interests, skills, ideas, philosophy etc. The salient ingredient for the chemistry of mentor-mentee bonding can be anything, even a similar liking for Starbucks coffee, a book, a movie, etc.
Nevertheless, it is always a challenge to apply the jelling formula in an academic set-up as there may be practical difficulties in finding suitable mentors with matching skill sets of mentees.
Reverse mentoring is another important factor of mentoring. It can be a two-way process of learning. Teachers should be open-minded to learn from their mentees, and to keep their perspectives fresh and relevant, and reflect on the effectiveness of their leadership, mentoring and team skills.
Peer mentoring is another successful formula as the peers are mostly batch mates or immediate seniors. Several universities have successfully implemented peer mentoring.
Peer mentors are of the same age group of their mentees but possess a little extra skill, knowledge or experience in a domain which they are willing to share with their peers. Since there is no age barrier between them, the communication is effective without any compromise on self-esteem and confidence. Peer-assisted learning has provided better results in many medical schools across the world.
The author is a professor of Microbiology at Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
