1.0 Background
The
path to a successful career encompasses a properly sustained longstanding progress,
growth, and development of a person at the learner level into an advanced and
productive teacher who is able to accept intensifying leadership responsibilities
in his or her endeavour. In the Christian-Kingdom; Christendom and many other turfs,
strong mentorship interactions ominously contribute to impeccable success.
Mentorship in the Church is aimed at understanding and advancing organizational
goals, foster interpersonal relationships, improve communication, and offer
professional stimulation to the parties involved. At the core of mentoring in
the Church is an interactive relationship between two people which will only
last if both parties derive some benefit. Thus, this feature makes mentoring
relationships impossible to create artificially because up-and-coming mentoring
relationships cannot be contrived, but rather develops wholly only when the
individuals work at fashioning this connection.
To
be sure, for the mentor and mentee in the Church, being preemptive and probing particular
individualities in the other party at the inception of a mentorship
relationship is imperative.
A
mentor is a reliable guidance counsellor or chaperon. A mentor, usually older,
is often more experienced and helps another who is less-experienced to navigate
through life. In the Church, members of the Council-of-Elders (if any) will
have to designated as mentors to guide, to give advice, and to support the
executives/workers; mentee. A mentor can help a person (mentee) improve his or
her abilities and skills through an agreed and assessable procedure.
2.0 Roles
of a Mentor
A
typical mentor in the Church is a more experienced person who is enthusiastic about
giving his/her time, interest, and support over a period of time to develop an
executive/worker; mentee. Knowledge of one’s own strengths and inadequacies can
help produce a bond that soothes the mentorship needs. Fixing expectations and prospects
early and frequently can help ensure that the parties involved remain satisfied
with the relationship.
Mentors
in the Church are to help their mentees deal with the unavoidable highs and
lows of life, teach the rules of career progression, know what is required of
him or her, help to develop focus and be good source of succor on myriad of
issues.
A
Church mentor is to act in the best interest of the mentee. At the same time,
the mentor should serve as an archetypal figure for the mentee whilst giving precise
and productive criticism that the mentee can use for self-improvement and
encouragement.
More
so, one of the best things a mentor can offer his or her mentee is time unrestricted.
The
Church mentors should evaluate the mentee carefully to determine the mentee’s
weights and ills. Mentoring relationships should also involve performance of
various tasks to be prescribed by the Mentor.
Above
all, mentors in the Church are expected to pray for their mentees so that they
might succeed in their endeavours in the Church as well as gather reports from
them intermittently.
3.0 Roles
of a Mentee
A
typical mentee of the Church is a less-experienced and junior person who is
willing to give time, interest to appreciate the support of a mentor over a period
of time to develop as an executive/worker. Mentees of the Church are to appreciate
their mentor’s efforts in wanting to help them deal with the unavoidable highs
and lows of life, as well as teach them the rules of career progression, help them
develop focus and be good source of assistance to them on myriad of issues.
Mentoring
relationships involves performance of various tasks to be prescribed by the
Mentor and executed by the mentee.
Mentees of the
Church are expected to pray for their mentors so that they might succeed in
their endeavours in the Church as well as submit reports to them
intermittently.
4.0 Developing
a Successful Mentor-Mentee Relationship
The following are prerequisites for a
successful mentor-mentee relationship:
A well-established
relationship of trust wherein the participants know each other must be ensured.
The role and
responsibilities of the mentee must be well spelt out by the mentor to avoid
misconception.
The goals of
the relationship; short and long, must be unequivocally spelt out.
Problem solving,
brainstorming and collaborative decision making as well as task execution should
be the crux of the relationship.
5.0 Conclusion
It
is the hope of the Council-of-Elders that establishing, sustaining and
evaluating a mentor-mentee will not only develop the executives/workers, but
will invariably afford them ample opportunities to learn, grow and develop
spiritual and otherwise under the mentor’s tutelage. More so, task execution, creative
as well as real-life problem-solving skills will be developed and nurtured in a
virtual environment, whilst making both the mentor and mentee become better
teachers and engender emulative interpersonal relationships.
Thank you.
AKINYETUN, Tope Shola
