Mentoring

8-83. Future battlefield environments will place additional pressures on developing leaders at a rapid pace. To help these leaders acquire the requisite abilities, the Army relies on a leader development system that compresses and accelerates development of professional expertise, maturity, and conceptual and team building skills. Mentoring is a developmental tool that can effectively support many of these learning objectives. It is a combat multiplier because it boosts positive leadership behaviors on a voluntary basis.

8-84. It is usually unnecessary for leaders to have the same occupational or educational background as those they are coaching or counseling. In comparison, mentors generally specialize in the same specific area as those being mentored. Mentors have likely experienced what their protégés and mentees are experiencing, or are going to experience. Consequently, mentoring relationships tend to be occupation and/or domain specific, with the mentor having expertise in the particular areas they are assisting in, but without the requirement to have the same background. Mentoring focuses primarily on developing a less experienced leader for the future.

Mentorship is the voluntary developmental relationship that exists between a person of greater experience and a person of lesser experience that is characterized by mutual trust and respect.