Supporting leadership development through mentoring

Effective leadership has continued to be an organisational and national priority. The requires valuing shared, distributed and adaptive leadership focusing on systems of care and on engaging staff in delivering results. (Rowling, 2011). Mentoring has become a popular and effective way of developing individuals generally and specifically for leadership since the early 1970s, though its origins date back to ancient Indian & Greek cultures. European Mentoring and Coaching Council defines mentoring as ‘a learning relationship, involving the sharing of skills, knowledge, and expertise between a mentor and mentee through developmental conversations, experience sharing, and role modelling. The relationship may cover a wide variety of contexts and is an inclusive two-way partnership for mutual learning that values differences.’ 1 There are various contexts to mentoring including a personal-professional relationship to an educational process; an organizational, cultural, and global context; and a systemic reform strategy that builds human capacity.