EHL Ottawa re-launches popular mentorship program

Following the success of the speed mentoring event in February 2009, EHL Ottawa is re-launching the popular mentorship program, with a new twist! See below for an explanation of how the program will work.

Mentorship

Emerging Health Leaders are tomorrow's health care managers, planners, decision makers and policy makers. Together, we hold unlimited potential to reinvent the health care system, addressing such questions as, "What kind of health care system do Canadians want?" And "How can we achieve it?"

Mentorship is a supportive vehicle for developing leaders and sharpening their leadership skills. The mentorship program aims to bring mentoring techniques and tools to members, as well as create opportunities to gain leadership advice from experienced health systems leaders. These mentorship activities aim to guide and support the ongoing leadership development of members as emerging health leaders.

Program vision

What is mentorship?

A traditional view of mentorship involves an experienced person (the mentor or coach) providing insights, guidance or counselling to a less experienced person (the mentee). Today, there are many non-traditional mentoring models, which are premised on accessing a diverse range of people with different levels of experience from a variety of disciplines. Peer coaching and networking are two examples of non-traditional mentorship. Regardless of the standpoint, mentorship is fundamentally a personal development experience.

Program elements

I. Mentorship speaker series

Bringing emerging health leaders together in conversation and discussion with today's senior health executives, middle managers and leaders from other sectors is a central component of the mentorship program. The mentorship face-to-face exchanges are designed to 1) address challenges facing today's health care leaders and 2) coach and develop the skills of tomorrow's leadership. These exchanges will take a case study approach in that they will be built around a specific health care leadership challenge, identified by the invited session guest. In addition, each guest will be asked to respond to a series of mentorship questions, which include:

• What is(are) the leadership challenge(s) you are presenting?
• What have been the leadership imperatives for tackling, navigating or mitigating this challenge?
• What role, if any, has mentorship played in helping you to address this challenge? (In other words, who mentors the mentor?)
• What leadership areas need improvement in terms of fully addressing this challenge?
• What advice do you have for tomorrow's health care leaders who may encounter a similar challenge in the future?

II. Tools and resources

Mentorship is, at its roots, a personal development experience. A number of self-directed resources and tools exist to help emerging leaders assess their leadership development needs and start building them. The membership program aims to showcase and share an annotated mentoring or coaching reference for its members on a regular basis. Please write to us (mentorship@emerginghealthleaders.ca) if you have suggestions to be showcased in the series.

Mentorship references

1. Demystifying mentorship
2. Five questions for mentors and mentees
3. Career rut and motivation

For more information, please contact mentorship co-chairs Jennifer Verma and Deborah Cumming at mentorship@emerginghealthleaders.ca