Mentoring is here to stay. Here are a selection of mentoring exercises that will help your company practise scenario analysis.
Situation 1:
Your HR Department has just deployed a new member to your team. He is very experienced and knowledgeable in your industry. It seems he was 中學 laid-off from a competing company and is quite judgmental about your current company's operations. You have been assigned to be his mentor.
Describe your response.
Situation 2:
In a business plan competition, you have been assigned to be a mentor for a Startup. However, the Startup has not been very cooperative and does not reflect a need to be mentored in the first place. To your own astonishment, the Startup has even approached another mentor to be in their team!
You decide to break away from them and coincidentally, you discover some information that will help them be more persuasive in their business plan presentation.
Will you inform them?
Situation 3:
You have a friend who has just lost his job in senior management position. His retrenchment has thrown a spanner in the works, especially with regards to sending his only child for further studies overseas.
He approaches you and ask for employment within your Startup - preferably as the Managing Director, so that his bank loans will not be affected. However, you are in a dilemma because you feel that there is a wide generational gap.
How will you resolve this problem?
Situation 4:
You chanced on a blog that was set up by your assigned workplace-mentee, that provides much unfavourable remarks about your current company. Your mentee has been careful not to quote specific names but you are definite that the photos that he has uploaded are taken within the workplace.
Should you report to higher management?
Situation 5:
You have been approached to be a mentor/advisory board member for a non- profit organisation. You meet up with the Founder and feel energised - you immediate answer is a resounding "yes". You are also swayed by the membership of a prominent mentor who is a well recognised figure. You convince yourself that you are in very good company.
However, as time progresses, you discover that you are not regularly updated with the organisation's progress and your membership does not create much bearing with the organisation's activities and direction.
Do you stay? Or were you never meant to be part of that organisation? Discuss your decision-making matrix.
Situation 6:
As a mentor, how do you ensure that you make a difference in the business decisions of a Startup or Non-profit organisation? Can you be sure that your views are valued, not just your immediate contacts?
Situation 7:
Your ex-student asks you for a favour. He has a group of friends who are talented in music. You watch their singing on YouTube and am very impressed. You suggest that they compose jingles for ads to get exposure.
Do you have other suggestions?
Situation 8:
You have been approached to be part of a Startup that is involved in creating a business strategy board game. However, your progress in the company is impeded by the lack of trust that the board game's creator has in revealing to you the complete business idea.
How will you proceed?
Situation 9:
You are the class monitor and have been assigned to be a buddy to a new student who has come from a country where English is the second language. The new student is very motivated in improving his English competency and insists in joining the class debate team to improve. You are the class captain and you need the team to do well to boost your chances of getting into a good secondary school.
What should you do?
Situation 10:
You discover that a subject teacher's blog provides enough clues for his own students to do well in a Science exam. You are also teaching the same subject.
Should you follow suit?
Situation 11:
You have been asked to be a mentor for a a group of students who want to raise funds for a non-profit organisation. During the course of meeting up with them, you feel that the leader of the group has aspirations of using the fund- raising as an opportunity to get attention and maybe a job in the non-profit organisation.
What should you do?
Situation 12:
You are part of a parents group that is setting up a food stall to support the school's fun fair. The stall that raises the most will win a prize and get recognition. In the morning of the fun fair, you happen to see a parent buy from a very popular hawker stall, which contradicts the rules of complete food preparation by volunteers.
As a mentor, should you help to improve the quality of your own stall or blow the whistle?
1.0. Overview
1.1. Background and History of Guidance and Counseling in General in School Practice and other setting
The history of school counseling formally started at the turn of the twentieth century, although a case can be made for tracing the foundations of counseling and guidance principles to ancient Greece and Rome with the philosophical teachings of Plato and Aristotle. There is also evidence to argue that some of the techniques and skills of modern-day guidance counselors were practiced by Catholic priests in the middle ages, as can be seen by the dedication to the concept of confidentiality within the confessional. Near the end of the sixteenth century, one of the first texts about career options appeared: The Universal Plaza of All the Professions of the World, (1626) written by Tomaso Garzoni quoted in Guez, W. & Allen, J. (2000). Nevertheless, formal guidance programs using specialized textbooks did not start until the turn of the twentieth century.
Counseling is a concept that has existed for a long time in Tanzania. We have sought through the ages to understand ourselves, offer counsel and develop our potential, become aware of opportunities and, in general, help ourselves in ways associated with formal guidance practice. In most communities, there has been, and there still is, a deeply embedded conviction that, under proper conditions, people can help others with their problems. Some people help others find ways of dealing with, solving, or transcending problems as Nwoye, (2009) prescribed in his writings. In schools, presently if the collaboration between teachers and students is good, students learn in a practical way. Young people develop degrees of freedom in their lives as they become aware of options and take advantage of them. At its best, helping should enable people to throw off chains and manage life situations effectively. Unprecedented economic and social changes have, over the years, changed the ways in which we manage our lives. Consequently, not all the lessons of the past can effectively deal with the challenges of modern times. Effective counseling, especially in institutions of learning has now become important. Boys and girls, and young men and women, need to be guided in the relationships between health and the environment, earning skills, knowledge, and attitudes that lead to success and failure in life. The need for counseling has become paramount in order to promote the well-being of the child. Effective guidance and counseling should help to improve the self-image of young people and facilitate achievement in life tasks. Counseling should empower girls and boys to participate fully in, and benefit from, the economic and social development of the nation.
2.0. Definitions of Concepts
2.1. Guidance
Guidance is an act of showing the way for some people, like adolescents, who cannot find the right path. It is directing, pointing, leading and accompanying. Guidance is saying "Yes" to someone who is asking for help. It is saying "Yes" to an invitation of someone who wants a temporary companion along life's way.
Guidance is giving directions to the lonely, confused, unloved, the suffering, the sick and the lost. It is pointing to some possibilities of thinking, feeling and acting. It is leading the person psychologically, emotionally and even spiritually to some newer ways of meaningful living. It is accompanying those who are fearful and uncertain, those who need someone along the rugged path of life's journey.
From an objective point of view, guidance is part and parcel of the counseling profession. It is called directive counseling. High school and even college students need guidance when they are unsure of what choices to make or what directions to take. The guidance counselor "opens up" a world of choices for these persons for them to choose from. It is like presenting the universe when all that a person sees is the lonely planet earth. The guidance counselor enlarges and widens the horizon of people who sees only a narrow path or a concealed view of that path. Thus, the focus is on possibilities and choices.
Usually, guidance occurs in schools. High school and college students avail of guidance and counseling services in their school. More often, young people are unsure of what to do, how to react or respond, and how to act in certain choices. When this occurs, they need someone older, wiser and more experienced to show them the way, to guide them. This is the role of the guidance counselor to extend assistance when necessary to those who are confused, uncertain, and needing advice. However, some adults may need guidance too.
2.2. Counseling:
Counseling is guiding and more. It is a way of healing hurts. It is both a science and an art. It is a science because to offer counsel, advice or assistance, the counselor must have the knowledge of the basic principles and techniques of counseling. The counselor must be able to use any of these basic principles and techniques