Leadership Foundation Aurora - Mentoring #LFAurora

Leadership Foundation Aurora - Mentoring  #LFAurora

As part of the commitment by Heriot-Watt University to the LF Aurora programme, all participants have been offered a mentor within the university.  The mentors are women in senior positions.  
Before being allocated a mentor, we had to fill in a short form saying what we would like from mentoring.  These were my suggestions: 

What would you like to gain from the mentoring relationship?

An opportunity to discuss with a person in a senior position in the University how they have advanced their career in the HE sector.
Also to discuss how opportunities that arise within the University may be of use to me in my career development and strategies for optimising these opportunities.

Do you have any particular areas of learning or interest at this stage that you would like to explore in the mentoring?

Managing and leadership – similarities and differences

Managing people, managing teams within a professional service

Influencing and negotiating

Describe the type of individual you believe would be best suited to you within the mentoring relationship. (Please use experience, level and area of working within the University, education, personal qualities, skills, and interests etc. as indicators as appropriate.)

I would prefer a mentor who is a member of a Professional Services rather than an academic as I feel this would be more relevant to me – but not from my own directorate i.e. Information Services.

I would prefer someone who while being a good listener, has lots of practical suggestions to offer and strategies for success within the University.

Career development at this University and at other institutions is of interest to me so it would be good to have a mentor who had a variety of experience at different institutions.

Change management is of interest to me so someone who has effectively managed a large change project or initiative would be of value.

I was allocated a mentor and we met a number of times.  It was a very useful experience and provided me with valuable insights into the workings of the institution and how to operate in a university environment.

My mentor is a very hardworking and efficient person and it made me realise that that when you work in Professional Services you have to be able cover a lot of ground and be effective in a lot of areas.  But is this what leads to success?  is it by definition more difficult when you are not an academic as you don't have that as your reason for being - are you always going to be a jack of all trades....

We focused on certain tasks and she gave me advice on how to manage change within my team, how to motivate staff and to move things forward.  It was a straightforward approach which I appreciated and was relatively easy for me to work with.  It helped me clarify to myself and to my team what we were meant to be doing and ways of doing this in Heriot-Watt University.