Mentoring – Section 1: The Guide

Mentoring offers benefits to not only developing engineers but also to mentors and their organisations. Relationships can be established and developed between qualified professional engineers and students and graduates for the benefit of all.

Benefits for Mentors

• It is part of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), to which all engineers commit to when applying to become a Member.
• Mentors will be required to demonstrate skills, primarily those of managing the relationship, interpreter, coach, assessor, and counsellor.
• Mentoring is fundamental in the monitoring and quality control for the company, IMechE and subsequently the Engineering Council.
• A powerful tool for development, mentoring can maximise the company's performance and the developing engineer's personal skills. For the mentor, it can provide new insights and strengthen professional recognition.
• It can lead to technical updating by association with developing engineers and allow the mentor to liaise across organisation boundaries.

Benefits to the Organisation

• The organisation benefits from improved recruitment and retention of high quality staff and the early identification of ‘high flyers’.
• Mentoring can be used to identify and publicise values of the organisation.
• It can offset prejudices from which some employees suffer: e.g. with regard to women and ethnic minorities. Mentoring can also act as a mechanism for change, breaking down inter-departmental and cross cultural barriers.
• Quality control and monitoring procedures can be improved and the organisation can become more active in succession planning.
• Ultimately, this leads to a well-qualified workforce where developing engineers rapidly attain professional status.

When setting up an organisation MPD Scheme, all involved need to be briefed about the scheme and the role of the mentor. This includes line managers and support staff.

Guiding the next generation

Mentoring typically begins when a developing engineer enters industry as either a student or graduate and works towards becoming a registered engineer (CEng or IEng). Chartered or Incorporated Engineers who volunteer to become MPDS mentors usually find their experience in industry provides the necessary skills to be an effective mentor. Time and effort are required and companies are encouraged to provide mentors with every support to undertake this important and rewarding role.

Knowledge

A mentor is much more than a tutor. Initial Professional Development (IPD) needs to be measured by competences achieved rather than by knowledge gained. Focus is on personal development and fulfilment of potential.

Mentoring is an effective way of helping to cope with rapid change. All mentors should be up to date with the current Academic and IPD requirements established by UK-SPEC (UK Standards for Professional Engineering Competence), including the assessment of competence.

Help to maintain high standards in engineering,.

The development, assessment and recommendation of an engineer to professional registration as CEng or IEng relies on the input and judgement of other professionally registered engineers. A mentor plays two key roles:

guiding a developing engineer towards attaining competence

assessing the level or standard achieved by that engineer

By doing this, the mentor ensures that the high standards of engineering employed by themselves and their peers are passed through to the next generation of engineers.

You will be monitoring and assessing the development and performance of your graduate against the UK-SPEC competence framework.

A mentor should have the professional skills, wisdom, integrity and experience that a developing engineer can respect, and the personal qualities that allows the individual’s professional development to be seen in an impartial light. He or she must be able to support and encourage self-development in developing engineers and to motivate them to reach their full potential.

Risks

Without clearly defined objectives and regular assessments, mentoring can become a worthless task.

Members must ensure that they avoid creating a ‘privileged’ group, as resentment may form if it is thought that the group is exclusive and has the ability to undermine authority.

The rapid progress of developing engineers may be seen as a threat by established managers.

Characteristics of a Mentor

Introducing a new engineer to the politics of the workplace is essential, and liaison with line managers and other relevant staff on the engineer’s behalf would be required.

IMechE would not recommend that a mentor uses the experience of their own training to teach their developing engineer as an example of industry today. A mentor will recognise the differences of an 18 year old school leaver undertaking a pre-university year in industry compared with those of a 21 year old graduate.

The role of the professional engineer should be defined as someone who exercises independent technical judgement and decision making. Other essential qualities should also be identified - professional and personal integrity and accepting responsibility to the employer and society at large for example: Good engineers are dedicated to creativity, innovation and continuous improvement and play a key role in wealth creation. They accept complexity and ambiguity and are able to adapt positively to rapid change.

Many professional engineers have direct responsibility for professional and technical staff. They should be involved with and play a major role in the training and development of developing engineers.

Roles

As well as personal characteristics, successful mentoring requires skills associated with the following roles:

Manager

The mentor is the manager of the relationship due to their experience and knowledge of the organisation. Managing in this context means applying ‘ground rules' for how the relationship should be run i.e. access and frequency of meetings, etc. This will involve frequent contact with line managers to ensure that the developing engineer is working effectively and to ensure smooth transition into any projects. Contact may also be required with university tutors and an organisation's training department as the mentor has a key role in providing advice for the placement of developing engineers.

Benefits

Effectively managing the relationship will provide a framework and overview of a developing engineer’s development, and will help the developing engineer build confidence in all areas.

Organisation of relevant placements by the mentor can help developing engineer's avoid being engaged in passive, non-contributory work.

Risks

The relationship should not be a directive one - if the relationship between the mentor and the engineer is poorly managed it could limit a developing engineer’s perceptions and initiative.

Interpreter

During the initial interview, which should be an integral part of the developing engineer’s induction into the organisation, the mentor should explain what the organisation looks for in terms of maturity, realism, motivation, competence, leadership and professionalism.

The mentor will describe IMechE’s professional development requirements and interpret the organisation training plan to develop a specific, individual programme for the developing engineer. Any previous training experience will be assessed against the requirements of MPDS. Up to 78 weeks of relevant previous experience may be counted against MPDS.

At this meeting the mentor should outline the responsibilities of both the mentor and the developing engineer and establish how the relationship will develop in terms of access to the mentor. The developing engineer should be advised about the significance and value of MPDS records, the acceptable standard of written records, how they will be signed off and about any assessment methods that will be used.

The first meeting should also be used to establish the benefits of becoming a Chartered or Incorporated Engineer and the reasons for obtaining CEng or IEng. The mentor should explain about the professional review and interview for corporate membership of the IMechE.

The role of interpreter should ideally be carried out in conjunction with the Personnel/Training staff.

Benefits:

Maintenance and improvement of quality standards

Highlights the importance of professionalism and provides focus for the developing engineer

Highlights the value of CEng/IEng as a professional qualification and a transferable recognition of competence

Demonstrates the flexibility and capacity required of the modern professional engineer

Risks:

May overwhelm with too much detail

Goals could appear unattainable

The mechanics of the procedures could hide the adventurous nature of employment in engineering

Coach

The developing engineer should be briefed on how to maximise formal and informal opportunities that an assignment can provide - personal achievement and performance, and breadth and depth of experience are areas that need to be proven. The developing engineer needs to be aware of, and should therefore, guard against the tendency to 'play it safe'.

The coach would assess the developing engineer’s objectives and agree the strategy to achieve them. The coach needs to consider the requirements of the developing engineer as well as the objectives of the assignment. There should be scope for improvement and self evaluation.

As coach, the mentor would formulate strategies to ensure that the developing engineer develops adequate interpersonal and social skills and be able to assess how well the developing engineer handles stress and emergency conditions

Benefits:

Encourages commitment and high performance

Encourages innovation and taking the initiative

Encourages achievement of both formal and informal opportunities

Risks:

The tendency to 'play it safe' by setting easy objectives

The mentor can be over enthusiastic and direct the developing engineer

Assessor

This is the essential feedback aspect of mentoring and may happen informally at casual meetings where immediate problems may be discussed. It may be more formal when the MPDS quarterly reports are reviewed with the developing engineer and signed off by the mentor with comments and suggestions for improvement.

The MPDS assessment reports are completed and signed by the mentor with the developing engineer. These assessment reports must be returned to IMechE regularly and on time. The assessments provide an on-going focus within which the mentor can review progress and identify possible problems with the developing engineer, and plan future objectives and action.

Benefits:

Introduces realism into the developing engineer's perception

Expands the perception of engineering and professionalism

Highlights areas for improvements

Risks:

Can be too critical, destroying the developing engineer's confidence

Can become ‘manager/subordinate’ interview

Can discourage risk taking

Counsellor

Counselling is the most important and effective skill a mentor can have. Mentors should recognise that they may need to update themselves in counselling and appraisal techniques. They should help the developing engineer come to terms with frustrations, disappointments and even failure. A mentor must have the ability to empathise with people and be able to quickly and easily establish rapport and form a relationship based on trust and mutual respect

Counselling is a relationship in which the mentor can help developing engineers to focus on their own personal development, strengths and weaknesses. In turn, developing engineers would be able to:

reach a clear and realistic self assessment of these strengths and weaknesses

make appropriate decisions and actions to achieve their full potential

develop and achieve the competences of a professional engineer which must be demonstrated at the professional interview when applying for MIMechE

The mentor should be able to recognise potential and listen. The entire focus is on the developing engineer's personal development and depends heavily on mutually agreed personal goals. The key components of successful listening are to:

listen to what the developing engineer is saying

listen to what the developing engineer is not saying

clarify any points of doubt

recognise uncertainty and probe for further information

test interpretation by paraphrasing what the developing engineer has said by re-stating if necessary

confirm mutual understanding

test values expressed by reflecting the implications of what is being said,

check the points that are important to the developing engineer

test emotions by reflecting the impressions you sense are being communicated by the developing engineer

Benefits:

Allows confidential discussion of ideas, fears, doubts and shortcomings without exposure to ridicule or censure

Enables the developing engineer to identify barriers to progress

Provides a vehicle for development of inter-personal and communication skills

Risks:

It becomes amateur 'therapy'

Either or both parties may reject the intimate nature of the relationship

The mentor is seen as the developing engineer's champion, irrespective of whether or not they are correct or not

Responsibilities of the Mentor

The mentor indirectly represents IMechE but, more importantly, assesses the developing engineer's performance against the professional demands of their company. The mentor must liaise regularly with line managers and Personnel or Training department and should develop and manage these relationships as well as the relationship with the developing engineer.

A mentor can expect to mentor no more than one or two developing engineers at one time with perhaps 3 or 4 in exceptional circumstances and then only for a limited period of time. Ideally, a mentor should not be the developing engineer's line manager, although it is accepted that on occasions, there is no other option, particularly in SMEs. If this happens, the mentor must be aware of a possible conflict of interest and be able to manage the situation.

Responsibilities of the Developing Engineer

The developing engineer should be encouraged to take ownership of his or her professional development and to make a commitment to professionalism from the earliest stage. It is important to accept that technical expertise alone does not make a professional engineer. The mentor should be seen as a valuable resource who can help the individual to recognise the range of skills, knowledge and understanding involved in reaching their goal.

During the period of initial professional development a developing engineer will develop a range of styles and will need to recognise the effect of this style on others. He or she should be expected to seek creative opportunities and develop the habit of creative thinking.

Above all, the Developing Engineer should make a commitment to continuing development.