Events & Courses

Who is this workshop for?

Whether you are already a mentor or wondering if you should take on the role, this training event will help to direct your thoughts.  It is not specifically for geoscientists but for any professional with mentoring responsibilities. You might be worried about the risks of social awkwardness or, worse still, a relationship failure.  Perhaps the fear of associating yourself with someone who could let you down or that you might let down is preventing you from contributing to someone else’s career development. 

The workshop will give you an appreciation of essential mentoring skills and a basic understanding of modern practice, including hints on how to negotiate and manage a mentoring relationship and to develop trust. 

Effective mentoring, and its close relative executive coaching, appear simple but are not easy.  There is no great body of theoretical knowledge to take on board.  However, you do need an open willingness and curiosity to learn about an important aspect of our professional practice which is not in itself about earth science.  You also need an altruistic desire to help younger professionals develop their careers and to be curious about your own career path, character and motivations.

What will you learn?

An outline for the course is:

1. Introduction
2. What makes an effective mentor? 
3. What knowledge skills and attitudes should we be encouraging in mentees?
4. Some useful behavioural skills – questioning, listening , flexibility and giving feedback
5. The mentoring process – how to structure sessions and avoid pitfalls.

An extensive manual will be provided.

The workshop will include about 40% experiential component, including supervised practice mentoring sessions. 

This workshop will not provide you with a mentoring qualification.  However, it will help you to improve your mentoring, stimulate your interest, and encourage you to study the subject in greater depth.

Who will deliver the course?

The course is designed and delivered by John Arthurs.  He has had a 50-year career in geological surveying and mineral exploration.  For the past eight years he has also been practising as a qualified executive coach with a special interest in helping vocational professionals in developing their careers.  In addition to working with private clients, he has also helped mining company executives deal with career and corporate issues and has mentored early and mid-career exploration geologists at home and abroad.

His wife Trudy Arthurs will co-lead the workshop.  While Trudy is not a geologist, she is a coach-trainer with the Academy of Executive Coaching and is an associate with organisational development consultants Taylor Clarke.  For the last 15 years she has maintained her own private practice specialising in career development for women and in developing confidence and self-belief.

Registration

Fully booked.