Steer away from blind alleys
Janine has written a new article in The Voice
Read some of it below or download the full article here
Dental Mentors UK is a new web-based initiative to promote mentoring for all dental professionals living and working in the UK. By supporting dental professionals who are mentors to be the best they can be and by making it easy for those seeking a mentor, Dental Mentors UK is pushing forward excellence and accessibility of mentoring.
Who is behind Dental Mentors UK?
Dental Mentors UK was developed by two senior dental professionals: Dr Janine Brooks MBE and Dr Jane Davies-Slowik MBE. Jane and Janine are experienced dentists and both have worked in dentistry for more than 30 years.
Janine says: ‘We feel very strongly that all dental professionals can benefit from working with a mentor. We also want to help improve the quality of mentoring available in dentistry. That’s why we felt it was important to include supervision for mentors and offer them continuing professional training and qualifications. By doing so, we hope to improve mentoring for those who seek it. Our own careers have been – and are – varied and we have considerable knowledge of the breadth and depth of opportunities that dentistry can offer professionals. We both have experience in post-graduate and under-graduate dental education and are mentors and coaches.
What was the thinking behind it?
Mentoring is increasingly being seen as a way of helping and supporting the development of people and, in our case, dental professionals. In dentistry, we are beginning to appreciate the benefits of mentoring and more dental professionals have undertaken training to become mentors. The word ‘mentor’ has come to mean trusted adviser, friend, teacher and wise person.
We believe that mentors have a huge impact on you, your business and your development whatever registrant group you are. A mentor can support your success both professionally and personally. Being a dental professional can feel quite lonely at times and it’s important to know there is someone skilled and experienced with whom you can talk and from whom you can get advice. It’s likely you will have a number of mentors throughout your career, depending on the decisions you are making and the direction of your career. Using the Dental Mentors UK profile directory, you can choose a mentor who is right for you.
Mentoring focuses on the present and on the mentee’s future, desired outcomes. The mentor supports their mentee to achieve those outcomes or goals, through a reflective, conversational process. A skilled mentor can support you to steer away from blind alleys; they can also help you unpick what is really important to you. Your mentor will be able to offer fresh insights, perhaps because they have dealt with similar situations in the past. Importantly, a mentor can help you to foresee difficulties and work through your approach to overcome barriers and obstacles.
It is for those reasons that mentors need to be experienced members of the profession who have personal knowledge, skills and practical information they can use to support and signpost their mentee.
Dental Mentors UK has a simple purpose – to profile dental professionals who are mentors (or would like to extend their use of mentoring skills) so that those seeking a mentor can find the right person for them quickly and easily. Mentor members receive a number of free benefits – marketing and advertising, their own profile page with photo and CV, supervision with a qualified dental mentor, factsheets of tools to use to enhance mentoring and a members’ forum. In addition, we provide discounted CPD and training for those who would like to study for a qualification. Mentors are free to set their own fees.
Read some of it above or download the full article here