Mentorship and Team Effectiveness Report: Insights and Recommendations

This report examines a mentorship relationship focused on helping a family member quit smoking. It details the mentoring process, including a signed agreement, introductions, and evidence of meetings. The report outlines the roles of both mentor and mentee, emphasizing the importance of communication, support, and goal setting. It uses the SMART framework to develop specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound goals for both parties. The report discusses potential benefits and pitfalls of the relationship, the progress made, and the challenges encountered. It also covers constructive feedback, communication styles (submissive and assertive), supportive listening, and examples of non-verbal communication used during the mentorship. The report concludes by highlighting the positive transformation achieved and the valuable lessons learned throughout the process. References are included to support the findings and discussions within the report.

Running head: MENTORSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS 1
Mentorship and team effectiveness
Name
Institution

MENTORSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS2
Part 1: AN INTRODUCTORY PAGE.
Mentoring is a process of counseling an individual or a group of people. Thus, it gives a
person the chance to share their experiences, personal and professional skills. In the process,
resulting in development and growth since, it is a relationship that is one-to-one between a less
and a more experienced person.
Q1A: Evidence of a signed mentoring agreement between you (the mentor) and your mentee.
CO-MENTORS NAME SIGNATURE
MENTOR JOHNSON
MARK
j.m
MENTEE KEVIN OWEN k.o
Q1B: Introduction and evidence of the subject you are mentoring.
Mentoring a family member to quit smoking can be challenging. Any family member is
crucial in the family. Thus, it is the responsibility of the members to ensure that they are all at
their level best in order to positively progress. Hence, counseling is important. Smoking is a
hazardous habit which should be eliminated as it results in side effects like lung cancer,
discoloration of teeth due to tar, bad smell, and breath, neglect of responsibilities, misuse of
funds and resources, results to burdening of family members in case one succumbs to sickness,
underdevelopment and stagnation in the family as funds are channeled in a wrong place and
purpose and the general neglect of oneself among others. Thus, there is need to guide a family
member who is an addict to help him quit smoking.
Q1C: Provide an understanding of the role of mentor.

MENTORSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS3
A mentor is an individual who is wise and can be trusted so as to counsel and give
direction pertaining a given issue to a less experienced person, by modeling behaviors that are
positive and building trust. His or her roles include: motivator, responsible for provision of
encouragement and sufficient support for persistence in one’s life; tutor, as he facilitates the
process of learning and impacting of experience; evaluator since he assesses the progress of the
mentee; collaborator, as he is tuned to the needs of the mentee and a counselor, because he offers
solutions to the problems being experienced by the mentee by providing guidance among others
(Ragins & McFarlin, 2014).
Q1D: Provide an understanding of the role of the mentee.
A mentee is a person being counseled. Thus, his roles include: cooperate, willingness and
ability to work as a team player; patience; be eager to learn and ready to admit; be a risk taker;
cultivate and have a positive attitude (Rishel, 2013).
Part 2: EVIDENCE OF A MINIMUM OF 3 MEETINGS.
First meeting: 7/7/2017; 2:00pm; at the mentee’s home; introduction, opening up and
sharing experiences.
Second meeting: 10/7/2017; 4:00pm; at the mentor's office; a brief view of smoking, its
causes, and effects.
Third meeting: 15/7/2017; 11:00am; in a restaurant; how to curb and quit smoking, self-
awareness, and esteem.
Part 3: DEVELOPMENT OF GOALS.
Q3A: Explain what the term SMART stands for when designing goals.

MENTORSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS4
SMART stands for specific, precise target of a given area with the aim of improvement;
measurable, quantifiable by suggesting an indicator for progress; attainable, the goal should be
achieved or met; realistic, genuine goals that are achievable given the available resources and
time bound, state when to begin and to end a given goal by specifying the time results should be
achieved (Smart, 2010).
Q3B: Develop individual goals for both you as the mentor and the mentee. These goals must be
in the SMART format.
Specific, to ensure that the mentee quits smoking. Measurable, to make sure that the
mentee reduces the rate of smoking. Attainable, to ensure that the counseling section is effective
to the mentee. Realistic, to ensure that the mentee is transformed. Time-bound, to ensure that
within a period of one year, the mentee leaves smoking.
Part 4: DISCUSSION OF THE RELATIONSHIP.
Q4A: Discuss potential benefits and pitfalls that may develop between a mentor and a mentee
during a mentoring relationship.
Benefits include the creation of a relationship between both parties; ability to learn new
experiences; understanding one another; impact the sense of responsibility and the general
positive transformation of one’s life. Whereas pitfalls include: arousal of personal insecurity;
fear of responsibility; expression of a negative attitude towards counseling and the general
difficulty to change from being an addict to a sober person (Huxhold & Lackey, 2016).
Q4B: Provide a discussion on this mentoring relationship – including the progress made and the
benefits and pitfalls that were encountered.

MENTORSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS5
Furthermore, the progress so far has been successful as the mentee’s life has been
redeemed. Therefore, this co-mentorship has been profitable as the mentor was able to know
more about his family member, the problems faced, and finding solutions to them thereby,
helping him to become a better person. However, the process was challenging as the mentee felt
insecure, did not show the willingness to change at first, showed reluctance to embracing
responsibilities and the general feeling of negativity towards change.
Part 5: CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK.
•Discuss the benefits of providing constructive feedback to a mentee.
The mentee is able to realize himself and changes to become a better person in the
society. It also creates trust between the mentor and mentee as a friendly environment is easily
created, thus, making the relationship to thrive and yield positive results (Trempe, 2012).
Part 6: STYLES OF COMMUNICATION.
•Describe 2 styles of communication you utilized throughout this relationship.
Submissive style entails compliance and pleasing others in order to avoid conflicts. Thus,
other people contribute and have more rights, and their needs are prioritized.
Assertive style involves communication of high self-esteem without resorting to
manipulation or games as one knows their limits (De Vries, Bakker-Pieper, Konings & Schouten,
2011).
Part 7: SUPPORTIVE LISTENING.
•Describe how you listened supportively to your mentee.

MENTORSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS6
Nonetheless, the mentor listened carefully and supportively to the mentee by giving him
humble time to open up. Also, asking him to contribute to the various issues they were tackling.
Part 8: NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION.
•Discuss and give 2 examples of non-verbal communication that you utilized in this mentoring
relationship
Visual entails the use of body language to convey a certain message. For instance, at the
end of the mentorship, the mentee was able to maintain eye contact, thus, implying that he had
gained some new experience and was ready to change.
Paralanguage includes voice rating through the pitch, quality, speaking style, and volume.
For example, the mentor and the mentee were able to understand each other as communication
was effective as they used the right paralanguage.

MENTORSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS7
References
De Vries, R., Bakker-Pieper, A., Konings, F. and Schouten, B. (2011). The Communication
Styles Inventory (CSI). Communication Research, [online] 40(4), pp.506-532. Available at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650211413571 [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].
Huxhold, D. and Lackey, L. (2016). Exhibiting co-mentorship: An exploration of a
mentor/mentee relationship in academe. Visual Inquiry, [online] 5(3), pp.329-336.
Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/vi.5.3.329_1 [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].
Ragins, B. and McFarlin, D. (2014). Mentor Roles: An Investigation of Cross-Gender Mentoring
Relationships. Academy of Management Proceedings, [online] 1989(1), pp.58-62. Available
at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.1989.4977937 [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].
Rishel, T. (2013). Rethinking the roles of mentor and mentee in the context of student suicide.
Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, [online] 14(2), pp.207-226. Available at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13611260500493626 [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].
Trempe, J. (2012). Providing constructive feedback. Biochemical Education, [online] 20(3),
pp.184-185. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0307-4412 (92)90077-y [Accessed 15
Aug. 2017].
Smart, R. (2010). The Goals and Definitions of International Education: An Agenda for
Discussion. International Studies Quarterly, [online] 15(4), p.442. Available at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3013579 [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].