In our post of August 26, 2016, we shared some of the insights offered by Professor David Clutterbuck - Practice Lead, David Clutterbuck Partnership (Slough, United Kingdom). In the weeks ahead we’ll look forward to posting some additional comments from him related to the topic of "Virtual Mentoring".
In this post, we continue to examine aspects of "Mentoring from a Distance" using tools such as E-Mail, Telephone and Skype / Teleconference as a part of the various emerging tools available to mentor at a distance.
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| Jim Ewing with Tuulikki Juusela |
Tuulikki Juusela was one of the Key Note speakers addressing the APEGA gathering, and I've very much appreciated receiving input from her as a highly skilled and seasoned Mentor.
Tuulikki is the owner of Womco Ltd. and is a Professional Trainer & Coach, based in the area of Helsinki, Finland.
When I asked her for a few insights related to the question of "Mentoring from a Distance", she quickly and very kindly provided a helpful response.
Drawing from her vast experience and involvement in the mentoring program of the Cherie Blair Foundation http://www.cherieblairfoundation.org/ she shared the following thoughts which we trust you will enjoy.
My “actors” (mentoring partners) have been from Kenya, Nepal and Sri Lanka. We have used SKYPE, which is very personal! Much of the research has made it clear that (in Mentorship) face-to-face interaction has no inherent advantage over text based interactions! It depends on how the partners use their time and capacity.
Multichannel interaction might be the best! The complementary nature of different communication modes could be useful to participants. Skype offers the increased capability for immediate feedback, and corrects for the impersonality and reduced language variety in writing.
One of the challenges for face-to-face mentoring is to make the time available, even more so when the two people involved do not work on the same site. E-mentoring offers the opportunity to stay in contact, whatever the physical distance between the people involved.
While mentoring is essentially about a one-to-one relationship, the internet allows and encourages group communication. E-mentoring, because of its accessibility across distance and location, allows for possibly a greater choice of who to have in a mentored group, and of who to choose as a Mentor. Computer literacy is continuously growing. However, it is still the case that those who may wish to be involved with mentoring may not yet feel comfortable with using email. The extent of an individual's computer skills contribute to their perception of the usefulness of different media, which in turn, determine media choice.
Tuulikki, thank you so very much for the depth of experience and wisdom you bring to Mentorship. Best wishes in the work you are doing!
We would be very pleased to have you add your comments to this post. What are your thoughts, suggestions and insights to help others in long-distance Mentoring Relationships? We'd love to have you share your Mentoring experiences with our audience.
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