What is a Mentor?
There are more than forty different definitions
There are more than forty different definitions of the term "mentor" that have been used since 1980, most of which share the viewpoint that mentors are people who provide personal and career advice. Hiram Foster, author of Functions of Mentoring as Christian Discipleship, describes a mentor as a role model, counselor, advisor, teacher, nurturer, friend, and sponsor.
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Mentoring is something most people talk about doing and needing. However, it is not obvious what being a mentor truly means or what the mentoring process truly entails. Is mentoring the same thing as training or advising? Does mentoring mean being a good role model? Are all of these labels for the same thing? Mentoring takes place in a wide range of professions. Sometimes, a mentor is defined as someone who has been trained in coaching, guiding, and advising those who are pursuing a wide range of goals and careers. Mentoring, on the other hand, is a more intricate, long-term, one-on-one relationship that goes beyond just providing information to the mentee. Mentoring moves toward establishing a relationship that could potentially form into a colleague and lifelong source of guidance and support.
The Five Factor Model is a consensus among researchers as one of the most accepted theories of personality traits as it pertains to mentors. The five traits are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (or emotional stability). Openness refers to the mentor’s level of curiosity.
Conscientiousness refers to the mentor’s effort to make plans and reliability to keep those plans. Extraversion refers to the ability to interact with others, displaying high energy. Agreeableness refers to the level of sensitivity toward others, specifically cooperation. Neuroticism, or emotional stability, refers to the level of confidence a mentor has that is free of anxiety or worry.
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There was a time when mentoring played a major role in American business. Young adults were chosen and trained through apprenticeships. The mentee’s career advancement depended solely on the individual performance and support of their mentor. Today, law schools model their mentoring programs loosely after the historic practice of mentorship.
FUN FACT
The origins of mentorship can be traced back over 3,000 years ago to ancient Greece. The term "mentor" or ΜÎντωρ was first introduced to the world in a poem titled The Odyssey, written by Homer. The poem tells the story of Odysseus and his son Telemachus. Telemachus is on a quest to find his father and bring him home as he is away fighting in the Trojan War. As Telemachus is without his father, the goddess Athena appears to Telemachus in the form of a family friend named Mentor. Throughout the poem, Mentor guides and protects Telemachus.
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Fast forward to the seventeenth century, the term “mentor” made its first appearance in the English language thanks to French novelist Francois Fénelon, in his re-imagination of Homer’s story, Les Aventures de Télémaque.
Fast forward again to the twentieth century, the practice of mentoring began when the Oxford University Department of Education first introduced the internship in 1987 as part of The Internship Scheme to assist the development of teachers in training.