Professor Bob Garvey holds the chair in Business Education at York St John Business School. He is one of Europe’s leading academic practitioners of mentoring and coaching. He has developed many training films and contributed to international Webinars and developed interactive training materials. Bob currently mentors and coaches a number of people from a variety of organisations. He has published extensively.

1. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Is mentoring – the key to resilient
leadership?
By Professor Bob Garvey
r.garvey@yorksj.ac.uk

2. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Agenda……
• What is mentoring?
• Why is it powerful?
• How does it work?
• What can it do to contribute to developing resilient
leadership?
• Context
• The question of leadership
• So, what can mentoring do to contribute to developing
resilient leadership?
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3. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
What is Mentoring?
A learning relationship between two people. It
requires trust, commitment and engagement. It
involves listening, questioning, challenge and
support. It has a timescale.

4. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Why is it Powerful?
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5. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Three concepts
• Generativity (Erikson, 1978)
• The desire to influence and bring on the next generation
• Key survival mechanism
• Learning is a social activity(Polanyi, 1958; Rogers, 1961 &1969;
Argyris & Schon, 1981; Vygotsky, 1985; Bruner, 1990; Lave, 1991; Nonaka 1991;
Mole, Griffiths & Boisot, 1996)
• We learn by and with and through others
• Psychosocial function (Kram, 1983)
• Mentee socialised into a specific social context, develops
self-insight and psychological wellbeing
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How does it work?
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Three stage model
1. Exploration
2. New understanding
3. Action planning
Alred & Garvey 2010 Mentoring Pocketbook. Management Pocketbooks,
Alresford

8. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Advice Giving

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What can mentoring do to
contribute to developing resilient
leadership?
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10. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
The context
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11. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
The nature of a knowledge-based economy
• All economies are knowledge economies
• Complexity - growth of new ideas, knowledge and
understanding, driven forward by science and
scholarship – all is complex and therefore
unmanageable!

12. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
The nature of a knowledge-based economy
• Science, technology and mass communications
• Driven by competition and collaboration resulting in social
change
• The unintended consequences often follow
• Knowledge is both imperfect and ordered
• Change is the norm
• ‘Keeping ahead of the game’ = Research and Development
• System dominated by developed industrial societies – but!
• Knowledge system is global and dependent on technology
• Communication extended beyond biological limitations
• Modern communications compress both space and time
• Meta-cognitive (reflexivity)ability can be nurtured……

13. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
The nature of a knowledge-based economy
• Knowledge cannot be kept secret for long!
• The challenge is to keep generating and applying
new knowledge to add value to goods a services
• Successful organisations know this
• The environment created within an organisation
makes it more or less possible

14. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
The Question of Leadership
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15. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Leadership Meanings
Behaviour which appeals to ideological values, motives
and self-perceptions of followers, resulting in:
Unusual levels of effort above and beyond role
requirements
Followers forgo self-interest, to make significant
personal sacrifices in the interest of a collective vision
…….willingly

16. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
The Rettig Group Strategy Document
(Finland and Europe)
“If top management are incapable of showing trust and
respect, then hoping that other individuals in the
organisation will make the effort to do so is just
wishful thinking.”

17. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Therefore…..
• It’s all about the social environment that facilitates
……. Or not…..!

18. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
So, what can mentoring do to
contribute to developing resilient
leadership?
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19. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
What can mentoring do to contribute to developing
resilient leadership?
• Chance Favours the Prepared Mind!
• The Leadership task in preparing people in and for
unstable times…….
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20. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Mentoring facilitated learning…..
• Works with subjective intuitions and hunches
• Makes insights available for testing and use by all
• Involves personal commitment and sense of identity
within organisation
• Has potential in all aspects of work experiences

21. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Mentoring facilitated learning…..
• Economic arguments for mentoring are compelling
• Shifts our view of the person as a learner - located
within an environment, self aware and engaged
• Is socially constructed and engages people in the
organisation’s social practices
• Achieves of goals and meets aspirations
• People relating to their concept of self through a
sense of belonging, being valued, developing diverse
competence and confidence in being yourself at
work
• Mentoring is therefore very important

22. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Mentoring facilitated learning…..
Is not:
• A way of coming to know about work or an extra to
‘real’ work - this is training and conditioning
It is:
• A way of being in the social world
• A disposition or a cast of mind.

23. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
r.garvey@shu.ac.uk
Mentoring facilitated learning…..
• The mentor is fully involved
• The mentor assists the mentee to fully participate
• Mentee’s learning experience is broader and deeper
than management or formal training

24. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Mentoring facilitated learning…..
The mentor seeks to:
• develop confidence
• consolidate an interest in
learning
• develop self-esteem
• create space for the
mentee to be themselves
• support and encourage in
change situations
• motivate to discard old
habits, practices and
attitudes
• minimise and face
stressful situations
• develop self belief

25. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
r.garvey@shu.ac.uk
Mentoring facilitated learning…..
‘Mentors do not need to be perfect, only human’
(Claxton, 1989)

26. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
r.garvey@shu.ac.uk
Mentoring facilitated learning…..
The challenge of mentoring is to recognise the need
to synthesise individual and organisational
aspirations as a central condition of organisational
success.

27. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Making it happen……
For L&D and Management:
• Purpose and Scope – what’s it for and who is it for?
• Barriers and enablers – start where there is interest
• Low key marketing of scheme not new initiative!
• Training for both
• Cross functional – to minimise ‘power’ from line relationship
• Match done by third party (software) – to avoid selective
choosing
• Support materials – reading, handbook, films etc.,
webmaterials
• Light touch management – to make it different to other
power driven activities
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28. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk
Making it happen……
For mentors and mentees:
• Do training
• Commitment
• Groundrules – set through discussion and mutual agreement
• Confidentiality
• Content
• Admin – time, place, frequency, duration
• Contact arrangements
• Process
• Review
• Initial expectations - discussed
• Regular review of groundrules – to reflect dynamic change and keep
mutual awareness leading to…..
• Graceful exit – to assist the ending
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