The Value of Mentoring

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Alison Dinnie, Forestry Careers Advisor for the Royal Forestry Society, speaks about the importance of mentoring in their flagship traineeship, Forestry Roots.

I’m the RFS Forestry and Arboriculture Careers Advisor and the designated mentor for the Forestry Roots cohorts. The Royal Forestry Society has been running Forestry Roots for 7 years, a traineeship designed to give young people who have faced barriers to employment or education an opportunity to enter our sector. Their traineeship is generously funded by The ALA Green Charitable Trust, and includes the support of a mentor. We strongly believe that this added support is part of the programs ongoing success. One of the values that really makes Forestry Roots stand out is that it is not just focused on providing a quality place of employment and exceptional training, it is dedicated to nurturing the individuals we place and make sure they get tailored support depending on their own personal circumstances.

We recognised that if we want to bring more people into our sector it is not just about creating jobs, but it is about establishing longevity in a sector where the work can be physically and mentally demanding to someone who has no previous experience of employment. When we bring a young person into what is likely their first job, and potentially their first time away from home, we are asking a lot of them which is why we recognised that there had to be an extra layer of care and attention to enable them to succeed. Our brilliant partner employers provide excellent training and support but sometimes there may be issues and challenges arising that our trainees don’t feel comfortable to discuss with the people they work with. Which is where we found bringing in personal support was so important, by providing them with someone who was one step separated from the employer and with particular experience in supporting young people.

What does a mentor provide?

Non-judgmental atmosphere

I pride myself on offering the highest positive regard to the people that choose to have coaching with me. This means that I won’t negatively judge what they are sharing and I aim to help them to see that their worries or anxieties are, most of the time, perfectly understandable and not a negative reflection on them. This allows the individual to share openly without the fear of what I might be thinking about them and, let’s face it, we all worry about looking unprofessional, underqualified or incompetent, and these fears can be magnified when you are young and inexperienced and in a role for the first time.

Once someone has this space and isn’t being held back from being honest then I can help them to sift through the challenges they’re facing, find ways to break it down and make it feel more manageable and from there create realistic actionable steps to take to help them. Quite often that action may be to have an honest conversation with their line manager and ask for further training or something similar, but without that space to unpick what they were dealing with and the confidence to voice what they need then they may have continued to struggle and potentially given up.

No agenda

Mentors are trained to let go of any personal agenda – we are not there for ourselves or for the organisation, we are there for the individual - and no matter how well intentioned you may be as a manager you are always going to have the interests of the business to consider. Of course, my mentoring with the Forestry Roots trainees is slightly different in that we have the desire to help this person into employment within forestry but if we’ve done our part well at recruitment, this will align with the individuals desires too.

We have all been in a situation when we’ve needed someone impartial to talk to, a sounding board. Sometimes talking to your boss or line manager feels too awkward because they are too close to the situation. We need someone who is just on our side, and that is the role I play for the trainees, I simply want the best for them and want to help them find a forestry role they can enjoy for a long, long time!

Also, when you’re in a temporary role and considering your options you may not feel comfortable discussing that you want to do something different with the person that’s been training you for the last 9 months. If the individual wants to explore something different they’re welcome to bring this up with me and I’ll do what I can to see how we can support that with the help of the current employer.

Accountability

As a mentor we can offer accountability to our mentees, taking time to check in regularly and make sure they’re achieving their development targets.

Accountability isn’t about being “told off” if you haven’t completed an action but it is about having someone to break challenges down if you’re struggling to complete an action and it can be easier to admit to a mentor that you haven’t finished something rather than your boss or colleague.

Encourages introspection

How often do we do the things that other people tell us to do? If you’re anything like me, the answer to that is…hardly ever! I encourage people to reflect on what they are saying, on their experiences and feelings, to develop some introspection and self-awareness and to uncover their own answers to challenges. What this then means is that because they’ve come up with the answer and the next steps they are far more likely to be right for them and to follow them.

Mentoring can be an incredibly positive experience and I would argue that it could be beneficial to all employees and employers, not just those in traineeships. The success of the Forestry Roots program is testament to how well mentoring can work.
 

Find out more about the Forestry Roots programme here 

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