Mentoring and Leadership
The Role of Leadership and Mentoring in the University 1
The Role of Leadership and Mentoring in the University: A Brief Assessment of
Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academic
Richard Ansah Sarpong
Disclaimer: The author have no special benefit nor propaganda agenda arising from the direct application of this research. It is purely for academic purpose.
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As effective leadership has become the drive for growing businesses, organizations and institutions today, mentoring has become one way of ensuring young executives, junior staff and students respectively being mentored to be effective leaders tomorrow. Leadership and mentoring, though with similar aim of developing people, is seen to be two distinct ways of action in an environment. Leadership has been variously defined but can be consider in one way as “a means of enhancing human potential” through communicating effectively and creating the needed environment for people to develop as leaders (Bijur, 2000, p. 167). However, mentoring can be considered to support and encourage people to manage their own learning, maximize their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be
(Parsloe & Leedham, 2009). In as much as leadership and mentoring have been considered two distinct ways of action, they are also seen as dependent on each other. According to Clutterbuck
(2004), offering mentoring as a sole activity is not sufficient on its own to meet leadership requirements, and that the sum of the two (Leadership and Mentoring) is of greater value than the individual components. Therefore, leadership and mentoring in the university must not be limited to only theory such as sharing of knowledge in the classroom but also practice such as encouraging and supporting creativity from students, engaging students into skill development activities to improve performance and also create awareness of the university’s expectation of students. In light of the above, it is vital to note that
The Role of Leadership and Mentoring in the University: A Brief Assessment of
Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academic
Richard Ansah Sarpong
Disclaimer: The author have no special benefit nor propaganda agenda arising from the direct application of this research. It is purely for academic purpose.
***
As effective leadership has become the drive for growing businesses, organizations and institutions today, mentoring has become one way of ensuring young executives, junior staff and students respectively being mentored to be effective leaders tomorrow. Leadership and mentoring, though with similar aim of developing people, is seen to be two distinct ways of action in an environment. Leadership has been variously defined but can be consider in one way as “a means of enhancing human potential” through communicating effectively and creating the needed environment for people to develop as leaders (Bijur, 2000, p. 167). However, mentoring can be considered to support and encourage people to manage their own learning, maximize their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be
(Parsloe & Leedham, 2009). In as much as leadership and mentoring have been considered two distinct ways of action, they are also seen as dependent on each other. According to Clutterbuck
(2004), offering mentoring as a sole activity is not sufficient on its own to meet leadership requirements, and that the sum of the two (Leadership and Mentoring) is of greater value than the individual components. Therefore, leadership and mentoring in the university must not be limited to only theory such as sharing of knowledge in the classroom but also practice such as encouraging and supporting creativity from students, engaging students into skill development activities to improve performance and also create awareness of the university’s expectation of students. In light of the above, it is vital to note that