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Mentoring - Alive and well in Air Force

Group Captain Alan Lyons officially launched a mentoring program for Air Force Administration Officers (ADMINOs) and Clerks (CLKs) at RAAF Base Richmond on 16 June 2005. GPCAPT Lyons heads up the Directorate of Military Administration - Air Force.

Why is Air Force endorsing a Mentoring program?

'I believe that mentoring behaviour, either as a mentor or a mentee is a crucial element of the leadership toolkit.'... 'Mentoring is about tapping the true potential of an individual by nurturing, guiding and supporting. It is about creating an environment where individuals feel that they can trust one another enough to explore future aspirations and development opportunities. It is not about favouritism, it is simply about good leadership.

Then Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Angus Houston, AO AFC
Source: Air Force Mentoring Handbook

There are clear personal and organisational benefits to be drawn from a mentoring program. Not only does mentoring enable personal and professional development and growth, mentoring provides insight into many of the cultural and environmental issues within the organisation by drawing upon personal experience.

A mentoring program has particular utility for Air Force ADMINOs and CLKs. The reduction of experienced Air Force ADMINOs and CLKs as a result of the Defence Reform Program resulted in the loss of corporate knowledge leading to serious challenges for today's Air Force uniformed administrative capability.

Mentoring is one means of providing opportunities for administrative personnel to share information, rebuild corporate knowledge, discuss new ideas and assist with personal and professional development. While mentoring is not a panacea for improving performance, a well-structured mentoring program can be a useful management tool to create a learning culture and assist with continual improvement.

The use of mentoring by ADMINOs and CLKs on Air Force bases is a key part of the Directorate of Military Administration - Air Force (DMA-AF) vision for the professional and academic development of all RAAF administrative staff.

Four step process

The introduction of a mentoring program for Air Force administrative staff is a four-step process:

  1. Educate the target workforce as to the benefits of the program.
  2. Implement a program that suits the Air Force culture and capitalises on our collective administrative experience.
  3. Encourage involvement by seeking nominations for Mentors and Mentees.
  4. Establishing a DMA-AF Website to coordinate an ADMINO/CLK Mentoring Program.
Implementation

Base Military Administrators (BMAs) and Senior Mustering Advisers (SMAs) have a key role in facilitating a mentoring system on base.

From a local perspective, the elements of a successful ADMINO/CLK mentoring program are:

  • establishing a supportive environment (this is an Air Force endorsed initiative);
  • committed people (administrative staff are committed - it's their nature!);
  • clear goals (negotiated between the Mentor and Mentee); and
  • appropriate tools to complete the task (the tools to assist the mentoring relationship are readily available from the BMA/SMA network, and the DMA-AF and Air Force Adaptive Culture Program Intranet sites).

The mentoring relationship does not replace or lessen the Commander and supervisor roles. Mentors will not be involved in the assessment of the mentee's performance as there is no formal assessment by the chain of command of mentoring relationships. Participation in mentoring relationships is voluntary and will require the commitment of all those involved. For many, mentoring will result in additional work to an already heavy workload, but the dividends are worth the extra effort.

Mentoring relationships can be established in many ways including discussions amongst colleagues, local gatherings, and published lists of interested personnel. As the DMA-AF program is a new initiative, DMA-AF is providing a means by which personnel can establish mentoring relationships on the DMA-AF intranet site. Those personnel interested in becoming mentors can fill out a nomination form and their details will be placed on the intranet site, allowing ADMINOs and Clerks to then access the site and choose a suitable mentor.

More Information: DMA-AF materials on the Administrative Mentoring Program are available on the DMA-AF intranet site at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/raafweb/sites/DMA-AF/ and from BMAs/SMAs.

Additional information can also be obtained from http://intranet.defence.gov.au/raafweb/sites/AFAC/.

For another perspective on the value of mentoring relationships see the Results through People section

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