Overview of Journey Mentor and Certification

Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey as a mentor? 

Our certification process for Journey Mentors offers a unique opportunity to use a reciprocal and wholistic approach to mentoring.
With our program, you'll gain the skills, knowledge, and recognition to create meaningful relationships and guide mentees on their transformative journeys.

Reciprocal Mentoring:

As a Journey Mentor, you'll engage in reciprocal mentoring, recognizing that mentorship is a two-way street. You'll create an environment where both mentor and mentee learn and grow from each other. This approach fosters mutual respect, trust, and continuous learning, resulting in a deeper-richer and more fulfilling mentoring experience.

Wholistic Mentoring:

Our certification process emphasizes a wholistic approach to mentoring. You'll go beyond the traditional focus on professional development and consider the mentee as a whole person. You'll guide mentees in areas such as personal growth, work-life balance, and well-being. By addressing the wholistic needs of mentees, you'll empower them to thrive in all aspects of their lives.

Tailored Guidance and Support:

As a certified Journey Mentor, you'll be equipped with the tools to provide tailored guidance and support. You'll learn how to assess mentees' needs, develop personalized mentoring plans, and adapt your approach to their unique circumstances. This personalized guidance ensures mentees receive the support they need to overcome challenges and achieve their goals.

Transformational Relationships:

Through reciprocal and wholistic mentoring, you'll forge deep and transformational relationships with your mentees. You'll foster a safe and supportive space for open dialogue, responsive listening, and collaborative conversations. These relationships create a foundation for trust and empower mentees to embrace their journeys of growth and self-discovery.

Certification and Recognition:

Completing our certification process as a Journey Mentor sets you apart as an exceptional mentor with a reciprocal and wholistic approach. You'll be recognized for your commitment to creating transformative experiences for your mentees. This certification opens doors to new opportunities and enhances your professional reputation.

Summary to Journey Mentor and Certification

Benefits for applying and receiving a Certificate from the International Mentoring Community (IMC)

1. Exceed the mentees' (the learners) requirements of the mentors they select to sustain the mentoring arrangement and connection 
2. Convey authority as a mentor in the mentoring arrangement based on audit-verification certification system to support an action_outcome based mentoring arrangement  
3. Utilize the inspired standards and wise practices of mentoring developed and used by IMC mentors through the continuous learning process inherent to certification and recertification 
4. Strengthen personal leadership and confidence to assist the mentee to evolve critical thinking skills while both grow personally and professionally 

• MAKE a Map/Plan - gain certainty of direction, identify risk factors
• Take Action appropriate for all internal/ external stakeholders
• Transfer Knowledge - the Know-Why and Know-How
• Encourage and extend collaborative conversations 

The IMC Learning and Educating Platform guides you to:

1. access the appropriate tools and techniques you require to be successful in all aspects of the mentoring arrangement - with self and with the mentee
2. deliver a mentoring experience consistent with the mentee's requirements and requests - in the words of the mentee, on your terms
3. manage your continuous learning about the existing and new knowledge/skills necessary to serve as a mentor - based on the latest updates from neuroscience, adult education, human performance improvement, industrial psychology, workplace culture, and more
4. challenge your conscious competence and caring contributions as a mentor (and/or mentee) - from the life mix of workplace accountability, personal wellness, recreation-play, and philanthropic volunteerism
5. gain modern mentoring insights useful to manage and lead the mentoring arrangement - especially for ethical decision-making, collaborative conversations, and encouraging the mentee's movement forward    

Founding Story

In 2018, Co-Founders Doug Lawrence and Dr. Stephen Hobbs developed, and now nurture the International Mentoring Community (IMC).  This community provides access to the wise practices and inspired standards associated with mentoring.

Consideration can be assigned to IMC for mentoring, and more. With your involvement we uplevel the community from a community of concepts to practices to significance. It's our intention to co-create a community where and through which the significance of mentoring as one of at least 12 education approaches available to assit each other, to further our sense of civility, our sense of what it means to be for the world in support of one another.

For reasons of transparency... The WELLth Movement (a Canadian Numbered Inc) provides administrative support for invoicing and financial management. The certificates are issued by the International Mentoring Community. 

From Ere to Here, and There - A Short History and Forecast of Mentoring

The story of mentoring is timeless - it's been a way of educating since humans walked the earth.

Mentoring involves a person (the mentor) sharing insights from lived experience based on the questions asked by another (the mentee, learner, protege).

This perspective of mentoring is a starting point for understanding and appreciating all things mentoring. As with most human endeavours, there are variations you experience once you begin to mentor. 

A common story of the term Mentor is linked to a Greek story of Homer's son receiving support from Mentor, the son's primary educator while Homer was on his Odyssey. 

However, if you think about it ... even before the Greek story - a person was helping another person to learn from their lived experience like the do and don'ts of hunting, fishing, gardening, making clothes etc. While instruction was often the first edcuating approach used in learning these activities, it was mentoring (with the mentee asking questions of the mentor's lived experience) that deepen and enriched the mentee's filling the knowing-doing gaps. 

And so, the name/term "mentor" has been passed along over time to it's present day form. However, there are additional educating approaches like instructing that are linked to mentoring that are clouding the story. There are 10 educating approaches helpful to your knowing and practicing. The decision becomes which educating approaches you add to your circle of competence and which educating approaches you ask for help from others because of their circle of competence. 

To mentor is different than to coach ... while complementary, their practice and outcome, position the mentor and mentee in a different place than coach and coachee. You will learn more as you involve yourself with the International Mentoring Community. 

While Mentoring - serving as a Mentor - it's important to appreciate the mentee's primary path to learning. Is it via maps and diagrams, action and reflection, knowledge and concepts, or encouragement and appreciation. Because when you know the primary path, you can guide the mentee forward. Then, you can welcome the other action paths. All four are present!

Do the same for yourself  ... and appreciate how your pathway to learning may be different or the same - what happens for you as a mentor? Do you educate from your pathway or the mentee's pathway or a combination because you make both pathways known to each other?

Mentoring is a thoughtful and tactful educating approach that has wide application - from within the workplace to nurturing parent-children relationships at home. When used correctly, the Mentor and Mentee (learner) mutually benefit from the time together. 

Testimonial of Mentoring Support with Doug Lawrence (Co-Founder IMC) has been inspiring.