Mentoring Programme: Developing a leadership culture

The University of Waikato is committed to developing an organisational culture that builds staff and leadership capability. In the period 2003 to 2005 The University of Waikato successfully used mentoring to support and develop the capability of academic staff.

In 2009 the University recommenced the mentoring partnership programme for all categories of staff (academic, general, leaders and managers). This initiative is part of the new Leadership and Management Development Programme and will be managed by the Teaching Development Unit (TDU) in collaboration with the Human Resource Management Division (HRM).

About the Mentoring Programme

The purpose of these mentoring partnerships is to match any staff member who wishes to develop their skills and knowledge with a suitable and appropriate staff member who will provide them with support and guidance in their interest area of development. Research has indicated that mentors often gain as much from the relationship as the individual who is being mentored and this mentoring association also offers an opportunity for the mentor to develop leadership skills.

It is expected that the mentoring will focus on a particular area of interest and we will try to match mentoring pairs based on the areas of interest identified on the application form. It is possible, perhaps even desirable, for individuals to both facilitate a mentoring partnership and to be mentored by someone else, so please complete a separate application form for each role you would like to take. In most cases the mentoring relationship with only last for a limited period, so we encourage mentors to consider mentoring others who have a similar development interest and make an ongoing contribution to the development of capability within the University.

The mentoring programme will initially involve a short briefing session to outline mentoring arrangements, share guidelines and enhance facilitation skills. This will be arranged by the Teaching Development Unit in collaboration with participants of the programme. It will then consist of regular meetings between partners (probably one hour every three to four weeks).

We also hope to run a review session in a few months time to check the success of the programme and to enable continuous improvement.

We cannot guarantee that we will be able to match all interest areas in the first instance, but will call for further mentors throughout the year to build up a pool to meet future needs.

Application Form

• Application Form (MS Word Format)
• Application Form (PDF Format)

For further information please contact mikebell@waikato.ac.nz or phone extension 8894.