Importance and Theories of Leadership and Mentoring

This essay analyses the importance and theories of leadership and mentoring, including relevant literature on trait, transformational/transactional, and mentoring. It also discusses the skills/competences required for effective leadership and mentoring, and how they can be applied in human resource management.

Leadership and
Mentoring

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
Relevant literature on Trait.....................................................................................................3
Transformational/Transactional.............................................................................................4
Mentoring ..............................................................................................................................5
Discussion on the skills/competences....................................................................................7
Assess your potential to lead and mentor others....................................................................8
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................10
Books and Journals:..............................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Today’s business environment is becoming dynamic in nature and competitive which
provides pressurization on employees as well as owners (Gul, Demir and Criswell, 2019). It
becomes crucial for organisation to provide good leadership and mentoring so that employees
are able to give their best in the organisation. It is very important for every organisation to
understand the importance of leadership and mentoring as it helps to increase potential as
well as productivity. Leadership is defined as the ability which is responsible for motivating
people in order to perform towards achievement of goals and objectives (What Is
Leadership?, 2020). Mentoring is refers to a process which is focusing on specially selected
and trained people in order to provide pragmatic advice, guidance, and for continuing support
so that they can give their best in the organisation. This essay aims to analysing the
importance and theories of leadership and mentoring so that an individual is able to increase
their potential and performance. It will include application of leadership and mentoring
theory and the student’s own areas for development identified from diagnostic materials.
MAIN BODY
Relevant literature on Trait
Today's environment is becoming complex in nature not only for businessman but
also in every field. Due to this, it is found that people are found to be lack in skills and
abilities (McConnell, Geesa and Brown, 2021). There are many kinds of problems on
challenges identified and the organisations such as increasing employees’ turnover ratio,
dissatisfaction in jobs, lack of skills and ability in employees, etc. For the purpose of
improving retention rate and job satisfaction, it is found that leadership and mentoring plays
crucial role as it helps to learn and develop skills and abilities in people. Every day the need
of leadership as well as mentoring is increasing and because of that it is becoming important
for every organisation in any field to focus on effectiveness of leadership and mentoring
(Waaland, 2020). There are many other reasons are found which is necessary to understand
that leads to involvement of leadership and mentoring in the workplace. It includes
encouragement of continuous learning, improving job proficiency, building soft skills,
boosting coaching skills, increasing professional credibility, establishing strong relationships,
etc. These are the main reason for the need of leadership and mentoring. It is identified that

leadership is linked with the performances in business. It is necessary to understand by
organisation that leadership is not linking with profit as it focuses on improving the
effectiveness of employees. It can be possible when leader has all the important skills and
knowledge which helps to ensure effective leadership (Gimbel and Gow, 2021). It is found
that leaders should possessed traits and qualities so that they can achieve goals and
objectives. A leader is the person who acts for directing and guiding to the people who are
able to achieve organisational goals and objectives. It is identified that effective leadership is
helps to communicate effectively with others so that they get engage. Leadership is defined
as the ability which used by leaders for the purpose of guiding and directing an individual or
a group of individuals of an organisation. It is necessary to know that leadership is not only
required in organisation but it is required in every field. This is the main reason that
leadership is playing a crucial role in order to make the decision sound.
Transformational/Transactional
There are many benefits found with the help of leadership. It includes creating and
articulating a clear vision, establishment of achievable goals, leading to positive business
outcomes, improve retention rates, satisfied the job, etc. In addition to this, it is also found
that leadership is responsible for creating feelings for personal fulfilment. It is really helpful
for improving job proficiency. Leadership is very helpful for developing self awareness in
individual so that they are able to build better relationship with colleagues and also increase
productivity by identifying the areas for improvement (10 reasons leaders should mentor
others, 2021). This is the main reason that leaders needs to possess necessary characteristics
and the skills which helps them to lead a team or individuals in order to achieve the desired
objectives. Some important characteristics which need to be possessed by effective leaders
are self confidence, creative and innovative thinking, strong communication and management
skills, openness to change, creative and innovative thinking, willingness to take risk,
perseverance in face of failure, etc. These are the important leadership characteristics which
need to possess by effective leader so that it becomes a great leader. There are many types of
leadership found which is known as leadership styles that include authoritative, affiliative,
democratic, servant, transformational, educational, etc.
There are some theories or models found in leadership which is really helpful for an
individual to make their leadership effective (Hernandez, Poole Jr and Grys, 2018). It is
analysed that trait model of leadership is based on characteristics of leaders. This theory of
leadership is used in order to predict leadership effectiveness. It suggests that there are certain

inborn or inherited qualities and characteristics which are the important reason for leader. On
the other hand, transformational and transactional leadership is the approach that cause
change in individual and social systems. According to this leadership, it is identified that
desire of follower and leader are not same. This is the reason that leader needs to provide
some extensive motivation to the follower so that they are able to do activities according to
the desire of leader (Crisp and Alvarado‐Young, 2018). Servant leadership is defined as a
style and philosophy in which it is found that individuals interact with others in order to
achieve authority rather than power. Authentic leadership was found to be at theory which
focuses on self awareness, balancing processing, relational transparency and ethical
perspective. Whereas, ethical leadership is found to be the one which directed by respect for
ethical values and beliefs and it focuses on rights and dignity of others. The main differences
between authentic and ethical leader is found that authentic leader is focusing on practical
aspect and ethical leaders focusing on theoretical aspect.
Mentoring
Mentoring is defined as a process which is used in order to provide guidance, support
and advice to the specially selected and trained individuals in their learning and development
process. It is the method which is used by organisation in order to help people for acquiring
the skills and knowledge from experience manager (Norman Sr, 2021). Mentoring is
provided by mentors and it becomes very important for an organisation that they should
include mentoring in leadership. It is very helpful in order to advise the self development
programs to individual. In addition to this, it is also found that mentoring helps an individual
by providing right direction. This is very important for individuals to get guidance which can
be easily provided by mentors about how they can acquire skills and knowledge for doing a
new job. In mentoring, it is very important for mentors that they require a high degree of
mutual trust between mentee and mentor. It is also important to ensure that there should
possess effective communication in mentoring programs. It is identified that success of a
mentoring is depending on the availability of predictability and mentor. Mentoring is found to
be a process which helps to support and encourage people to manage their learning in order to
maximize their potential, skills and improving the performances of an individual.
There are many benefits of mentoring is found such as recruitment, motivation to
employees, building relationships and securing knowledge capital (Hastings and Kane, 2018).
It is identified that mentoring is helping organisation in order to identify the suitable
candidates with the help of internal sources of recruitment. With the help of mentoring,

organisations can easily building relationship. It is identified that when talking is very helpful
for increasing self confidence and self awareness. In addition to this, it is also analysed
mentoring is crucial for developing strong communication skills and improving goal setting.
For the enjoying of effective mentoring, it is important to note that maintenance of an
organisation should possess all the skills and abilities which help them to achieve their
objectives. It includes active listening, inspiring, building trust, encouraging, opening doors,
providing corrective feedback, identifying goals and current objectives, and
instructing/developing capabilities. In addition to this, it is also found that a mentor is
responsible for increasing the skills and knowledge of an individual. A mentor is a person
who is responsible for providing effective mentorship to the individuals. There are some
qualities which need to possess by a good mentor (Yakovleva, 2021). It is very important to
note that a mentor should have relevant expertise on knowledge so that they can use their
knowledge in order to provide guidance to the individual. There are many mentors who have
no experience or knowledge so it is very important for them to develop experience as well as
knowledge which helpful in order to provide guidance to people. It is identified that mentor is
responsible for enthusiasm.
There are many mentoring models identified that helpful for an individual to lead and
mentoring others. Some important models are include one on one mentoring, functional
mentoring, mentoring panel or committee, peer mentoring, group mentoring and mosaic
mentoring (Mentoring the future - Role of a mentor in leadership development coaching,
2020). One on one mentoring is found to be a traditional mentoring type in which senior
mentors are focusing on guiding junior mentor along with their career path. It is found to be
useful for formal or informal relationships. In this mentoring, there is a relationship between
mentor and mentee with time frame and structure. The already have a pre defined time limit.
It is also identified that mentee are selected their mentors independently. Peer mentoring is
defined as a model which is typically a group setting. In this mentoring, the faculties are
working on the same level of training experience or rank so that they can share knowledge
and experience to people (Rees and McLaughlin, 2018). It also include in formal lunches,
career counselling sessions and peer support groups that run by experts. In mentoring panel
or committee, it is found that a junior faculty member has a sign by a panel of 2-5 mentors
who are able to meet together in every 4 to 12 months. This is very helpful for mentees to get
several experiences from different mentors. For the purpose of achieving multi-dimensional
guidance, it is identified that mosaic mentoring is helpful as it is viewed as a longitudinal

landscape of career mentoring. It is also identified that mosaic mentoring is referred to a
specific type of group mentoring which includes diverse range of individuals from different
genders, skills, ages, experience, etc. It is really beneficial for collaboration, merging small
pools, reduced pressure on mentors, etc.
Discussion on the skills/competences
According to Mentor Leadership: Why Mentoring Is Essential To Good Leadership,
2019, it is identified that mentoring is essential for good leadership. Mental leadership is
found to be critical components of business as it really help for success. It is also found that
mental leadership develops great people which are leading for profitability and growth. In
organisation, mental leadership is found to be important which is used in order to lead a team
that includes effective mentorship of members. It is also a trusted and tried method for the
development of best leaders. It is found that batteries playing an important role as it nurture
the mentor and also helps in encouraging grow, up skill, and learn. It is found that mentoring
is super important for leaders the reason is it brings the best out from people whom lead by
leaders. In organisation, mentoring is very helpful in order to generate confidence, Fast track
team development and inspire trust. Mentor leadership is very effective as it aligns perfectly
with the managerial style. Good mentors are found to be an integral part of leadership
development. Mentoring is a strategic tool which is used for shaping people so that they can
fit in the organisational culture.
For a human resource management, it is necessary to understand the importance of
leadership and mentoring. As a human resource management it is very important for me to
develop necessary skills and knowledge for leading and mentoring my workers. I have two
offices with 23 workers and I studied for human resource management. It is crucial for me to
lead and mentor others so that I am able to achieve my organisational goals and objectives.
As a human resource manager, it becomes very important to have effective leadership and
mentoring skills. Human resource management is a department which is dealing with the
different kinds of employees (Carpenter and et.al., 2019). It performs many kinds of
functions in which retention of employees is playing a very important role for the success of
an organisation. Every day it is found that employees’ turnover ratio is increasing at a higher
rate and that's why it becomes crucial for an organisation to focus on retention of employee.
It is analysed by company that leadership and mentoring provided a great impact on retention
of employees. There are many kinds of reasons which influence employees to leave the job
such as increasing in politics, dissatisfaction, workplace culture, etc. In this case, it becomes

necessary for a human resource manager to possess all the necessary skills and abilities of a
leader and mentor so that they can use effective leadership and mentoring styles in order to
increase the retention of employees (Gray, 2018). The retention of employees is important for
the success and growth of an organisation as it shows that how an organisation uses their
human resource in order to gain competitive advantage. Retention of employees is playing an
important role in the market as it is responsible for reputation and image of organisation. It
becomes a key issue which is necessary to address by organisation with the help of effective
leadership and mentoring. In the study, it is identified that every day the competition is
increasing in which employees need to improve their skills so that they can become more
potential and productive for organisation. It is also necessary for them to pursue career
opportunities. The development of skills and knowledge can be possible with the help of
mentoring and leadership. When human resource manager is able to understand the
importance of leadership and mentoring then they can easily able to address this issue.
Assess your potential to lead and mentor others.
Human resource management is responsible for providing effective training and
development session to an individual (Hackmann and Malin, 2019). During the training
session, it is important for human resource manager to possess effective leadership and
mentoring so that they can help employees in order to improve their understanding and skills.
With the help of right mentoring and leadership styles, human resource manager is able to
develop skills and abilities in the employees which provided them self confidence and also
very helpful for reducing the cost of employees turnover. It is identified that increasing in
turnover ratio of employees provided a great impact on the organisational reputation. It shows
that company is not doing well and that's why they are lost their employees. This is the main
reason that human resource department is playing a crucial role in the organisation and it is
necessary for each and every human resource manager to possess leadership and mentoring
skills (Shaw and et.al., 2018). When they provide training and development solutions to the
individual then they should poses capability to inspire and encourage each and every
employee towards the achievement of goals and objectives of organisation. It can be possible
only with the help of understanding different theories of leadership and mentoring. According
to the need of an individual, human resource manager should adopt any style of leadership
and mentoring. For example, if it is found that there are very few employees who need
training sessions than they should be mentored with the help of one on one mentoring model

in which each employee get personal mentor. It is very helpful for an employee to improve
their skills and abilities as it guided by a single mentor.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that leadership and mentoring are
playing very important role in the success in growth of an individual. It is necessary for
individual to get right leadership and mentoring session so that they can develop skills and
knowledge in an effective way. It is really helpful for an individual to improve their
employability and transferable skills. There are models of theories identified in leadership
and mentoring which helps an organisation to achieve their goals and objectives in an
effective way. It is important to note that an individual needs to select leadership and
mentoring according to their needs as there is no single leadership and mentoring which is
suitable able for every situation. This report covered essay of leadership and mentoring with
the reviewing of many literatures. It is also found at there are many reasons of leader to use
different leadership and mentoring style. It is identified that mentoring is essential for good
leadership which is analysed from this essay that it helps in inspiring staff through effective
communication and creating an environment of intellectual stimulation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Carpenter, C. R., and et.al., 2019. Leadership lessons: developing mentoring infrastructure
for GEMSSTAR scholars. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 67(4), pp.650-
656.
Crisp, G. and Alvarado‐Young, K., 2018. The role of mentoring in leadership
development. New directions for student leadership, 2018(158), pp.37-47.
Gimbel, P. A. and Gow, P., 2021. Leadership Through Mentoring: The Key to Improving the
Confidence and Skill of Principals. Rowman & Littlefield.
Gray, J. A., 2018. Leadership Coaching and Mentoring: A Research-Based Model for
Stronger Partnerships. International Journal of Education Policy and
Leadership, 13(12), p.n12.
Gul, T., Demir, K. and Criswell, B., 2019. Constructing teacher leadership through
mentoring: Functionality of mentoring practices in evolving teacher
leadership. Journal of science teacher education, 30(3), pp.209-228.
Hackmann, D. G. and Malin, J. R., 2019. Mentoring for the educational leadership
professoriate: perspectives from Jay D. Scribner Mentoring Award recipients and
mentees. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 14(3), pp.236-260.
Hastings, L. J. and Kane, C., 2018. Distinguishing mentoring, coaching, and advising for
leadership development. New directions for student leadership, 2018(158), pp.9-22.
Hernandez, J. S., Poole Jr, K. G. and Grys, T. E., 2018. Mentoring millennials for future
leadership. Physician Leadership Journal, 5(3), pp.41-45.
McConnell, K. R., Geesa, R. L. and Brown, R. D., 2021. Mentoring Future Education
Leaders: Mentor Perceptions of an Educational Leadership Doctoral Mentoring
Program. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 16(1), pp.88-
105.
Norman Sr, J. D., 2021. Youth Leadership and Mentoring: 21 st Century Leadership for
Troubled Youth (Doctoral dissertation, Saint Mary's College of California).
Rees, P. L. and McLaughlin, D. J., 2018, April. Peer Leadership and Mentoring in
Engineering: A Potential Path for Changing Organizational Culture to Positively
Impact Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In 2018 CoNECD-The Collaborative
Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference.
Shaw, R. B., and et.al., 2018. Transformational mentoring: Leadership behaviors of spinal
cord injury peer mentors. Rehabilitation psychology, 63(1), p.131.
Waaland, T., 2020. Job characteristics theory and mentoring: the influence of cognitive tasks
and educational leadership on mentoring provided. International Journal of
Mentoring and Coaching in Education.

Yakovleva, M., 2021. LEADERSHIP IN MENTORING AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR
STAFF ADAPTATION. Journal «Human Progress» http://progress-human.
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