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Loading …From the Front Line is a new series where social workers share their experiences on various topics and running issues within the sector. To express an interest in taking part, email us at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
Frontline social workers operate within hierarchical organisations under the guidance and direction of managers at various levels.
Yet, the relationships with managers are complex; the inherent power imbalance can blur the line between advice and instruction, making open dialogue difficult.
Mentors can serve as an impartial guide – a trusted sounding board who offers wisdom, support and space for professional growth.
But what defines a good mentor? And how do you find one?
Three experienced social work professionals described how mentorship influenced the course of their careers, and provided advice on where to find one and what it takes to be one.
Tiffany Green, practice development lead, 22 years’ experience
I’ve always pushed myself to try different things, but that also goes back to my mentor. I got my mentor through the College of Social Work because, back then, I wanted to be a director of social services.
I didn’t know what that looked like or what steps I needed to take to get there, so I was allocated a mentor who had been in that role.
She’d have me write out actions I needed to take and taught me how to use the resources I already had to get the skills I needed and create opportunities.
For example, if you want to be a director, you need management experience. One way is to become a practice educator, where you can learn your threshold around balancing your daily work while managing someone else’s.
She also had me do one-year, three-year and five-year projections as to where I wanted to go and look at job descriptions for directors to see what skills I needed. Then we’d work backwards – what roles in the local authority could give me those skills?
She also made me think about what was good and bad about the managers I had. How do I avoid becoming the bad manager? And could I integrate the skills and the practice of the good ones?
It was an enlightening, insightful, and challenging experience, but in a good way. It challenged me to think about who I wanted to be.
It was the first time someone showed me that I get to choose how I do things.”
Your supervisor or manager will talk to you about opportunities for training, but you’ll rarely get a manager who’s comfortable if you say, “I want to be a manager”.
Having that separate person, who was just focused on me and what I wanted professionally, was really helpful.
Andrew Gambrill, independent practice educator and trainer, qualified in 2007
All my mentors were informal. I’ve always had at least one or two at any time and some of them stayed with me throughout my career. I guess it’s about, when things are going wrong, who do you call?
I might not speak to them for months but they’re your go-to people who can help you make sense of things.
As you progress, you leave one job for another, but you retain some people – it’s friendship slash mentorship. I think the difference here is that a friend would say you’re brilliant no matter what, while a mentor would go, “Actually maybe that’s not the right approach. These are your strengths but this is what you need to work on as well.”
It’s also good to have someone outside the organisation because, otherwise, you can get a corporate answer, even from a mentor. From the outside, they might be a little more critical and look at it from a different point of view.
At one point, I was going through a bad spell, a bad relationship with a manager, and when I spoke to a mentor outside of that organisation they offered a good balance of “Yes, that’s not fair how they’ve been treating you,”, but also, “Be a good professional. The reaction you described wasn’t good either. Avoid getting petulant and stick to your values.”
So having that balance was great.
You need mentors who can be positive and encouraging but equally have the courage to be critical.
You need someone saying, “Here’s your strength, build that strength, but you’ll hit a ceiling with certain elements. Don’t try to be that version of you because that’s not where your skills lie.”
On a practical level, I’ve always struggled with comprehensive writing. I’ve always been quite succinct in my writing, when sometimes more elaboration was needed, and having someone help me was really encouraging.
I’ve also had good mentors who didn’t wait for me to say, “I’m struggling”. When you start to struggle you’ll always wait and think, “Oh maybe I’ll get better and is it a weakness to say it?”
There is a relief of somebody else saying, “Listen, you’re struggling,” and offering support. Those are the good mentors. I’ve had one tell me, “I’ve been through these situations as well and I wanted to be the person I needed then.”
Managers can double as mentors, but it’s incredibly difficult because the ideal mentor is almost separate from this corporate process.
I’ve had some who have been good mentors for a lot of the time but sometimes it was a challenge because of the balance of the role.
What I’ve learned is that you’ve got to reach out and recognise who is able and willing to be your mentor. It is tricky because, as newly qualified staff, you get a lot of formal mentors, like managers and leads, but sometimes the informal ones are those who count. They are the ones who sit in the corner and tell you the stuff you need to know that no one else tells you.
But it’s about being appreciative as well. You could send back some love and say, “I really appreciate you, thank you”.
That can be a good reward for the mentor and encourage them to keep going, because we all need the feedback. We all need the positive strokes.
Jane Mathew-Byrne, national professional lead, over 30 years of experience
Eight years ago, Farrukh Akhtar, my colleague at Kingston University, where I was a lecturer, became the BA course lead so I worked closely with her.
She got to know me and pushed me to try new opportunities. She’d say, “Oh Jane why don’t you take up the mentoring scheme? You’re already mentoring students.”
She recognised that my strengths and skills were in building relationships with people, mentoring and championing them, not telling them what to do.”
I was able to go to her and chew things over. I don’t think it matters how experienced you are. It’s always good to have a sounding board. She wasn’t my supervisor or manager, but even if she had been, that wouldn’t have been a problem because of her style of work. We built up that relationship.
She inspired me to encourage other team members to do that as well. Her mentoring was an excellent example that helped me further my skills.
Looking back, she supported me to realise it was time to move on. Part of me knew that, but I left it right at the back of my mind.
As a mentor, you don’t tell people what to do. You don’t have that authoritarian aspect, what you want to do is develop the individual.
It’s very much being with the person. You can give them the space they need and reflect together and they don’t fear saying something wrong.
I would advise new mentors to always listen. Don’t direct and be supportive. And if it’s too much, then go speak to your senior.
