In the simplest of terms, Asset Based Mentoring assumes that there is something right and valuable about the mentee, i.e. they have potential, have a gift, talent or something worth developing.

Whereas in a lot of UK schools mentoring is not being delivered via this premise but quite the opposite. On my observation and a confession of many, many professionals and senior leaders mentoring is being delivered via a deficit model which starts at a point of something is wrong, not working or needs correcting.

This is not just happening in schools but a lot in society. I was at a “closed meeting” (you could not share who was attending) at Windsor about Social Justice. We had senior government figures and someone shared something that highlighted so much and this is what they shared: “Unfortunately we fund failure”. This was startling to hear but true.

I found this to be true but frustrating as it reminded my of when I was a up and coming mentor who expressed if an organisation would “invest” more down the proactive and preventative section of the spectrum, it would be more wise and valuable for the school. More children could be nurtured and supported, less would come up to the crisis management part of the spectrum and there would be less fire fighting and being on the back foot.

However, this spend is harder to justify as the motto stands true “if it isn’t broke why fix it? And when it is broke throw money at it! A Vice Principal shared sadly that they had spent 120k on alternatively educating 9 students off site which brought to question in my mind, how many other students funding did this 9 students take?

They took many of the other student’s provision that are quiet, rarely say boo to a goose or doing alright, which is not fair. However if the school spent a fraction of the 120k on developing a dynamic and preventative provision probably 300-500 children could benefit from the investment and some of the 9, who were educated externally, may have stayed in school.

So taking this into consideration, if you develop an asset based mentoring approach more students under the radar would be supported and it would create a more aspirant and achievement focused ethos whilst a deficit model funds failure and may not prevent it.
Which approach would you choose?

If you would like to find out more, please feel free to contact me directly.

Happy Mentoring