The road to success with a mentor

Mentoring is a valuable career development tool used to build nursing leadership skills. Our present nursing leaders must consider it their responsibility to mentor the novice leader of the future, just as they may have been mentored. During the mentoring process, the mentor will use the roles of teacher, counselor, intervenor, and sponsor to develop the protégé. The mentor will facilitate the development of independence, self-confidence, job satisfaction, upward mobility, decision-making skills, and problem-solving skills in the protégé. During this process the mentor and protégé will move through three developmental phases. These phases include the first phase of recognition and development, the second phase of emerging protégé independence, and the final phase of letting go. If the "fit" is right, the protégé will experience the many positive outcomes. If the "fit" is not quite right, then the movement through the phases will be incomplete and the protégé may not develop independence. The protégé and the mentor may also experience a number of other negative outcomes, such as feelings of being over pressured or let down.