Class Details
Mentoring Skills for Leaders Course
Course summary
Develop the power of mentoring to inspire and empower your people. Mentoring is a one-to-one relationship in which you, as a leader, actively help an employee reflect on strengths, solve problems and build career resilience.
In this course, you will learn to guide mentees in reflecting on strengths, tackling challenges, and building career resilience. Master the foundations of mentoring by defining its purpose, adopting the right mindset, and building trust. Discover how to use goal setting and solution-focused questioning to foster autonomy and resilience. Learn to balance coaching, advising, and role modelling to create impactful conversations that drive growth. Finally, learn how to use shadowing, storytelling, and self-disclosure to become a powerful role model.
Aims
This course aims to equip managers and people leaders to use contemporary mentoring models with their peers, direct reports and colleagues.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- describe the difference between coaching, mentoring and counselling
- choose when and how to mentor in professional contexts
- adopt the mindset and behaviours of an effective mentor
- establish trust, connection and boundaries in a mentoring relationship
- build intrinsic motivation, using positive goal setting tools
- help staff learn from experience, by fostering a growth mindset by using coaching, advising and role modelling techniques
- pinpoint and develop a mentee’s signature strengths
- use solution-focused questions to help your mentee solve problems, make robust decisions and remain resilient in the face of challenges.
Content
Mentoring: the what, why, and how
We use the words 'mentoring and coaching' regularly. But what do they mean? Learn what mentoring looks like in the modern workplace. Then explore four different modes of mentoring – hierarchical, lateral, peer and reverse – to find the best fit for your mentoring context.
The mentor mindset: what it takes
Great mentors aren’t simply chosen for their skills – they know how to create impactful, meaningful conversations. They achieve this through five key strategies: generativity, intrinsic motivation, meaningful connection, trust-building, and goal-setting. In this module, you will master how to apply each of these strategies to inspire and empower your mentees.
Building trust that lasts
Explore the foundations of building trust that stands the test of time. This module delves into creating psychological safety, fostering trust through meaningful self-disclosure, and setting clear boundaries to ensure a strong and professional mentoring relationship.
Goal setting for growth and purpose
Explore positive goal setting to give your mentee a powerful sense of autonomy and purpose. In this lesson, you will learn how to increase a mentee's intrinsic motivation and boost their resilience using a proven goal-setting model from Positive Psychology.
Flexing your role to maximise impact
Discover how to adapt your mentoring approach to create the greatest impact. In this module, you will learn how to seamlessly switch between coaching, advice-giving, and role modelling to meet your mentee’s unique needs. Master the art of choosing the right tool at the right time to empower and inspire growth.
Solution-focused questioning for results
As Socrates once said, 'I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.' This lesson explores how to use Socratic dialogue to craft powerful, solution-focused questions that inspire reflection and action. It includes a practical session in which you will lead a partner through a solution-focused conversation.
Structuring advice to empower growth
Nobody wants to sit through a lecture disguised as advice. Instead, great mentors structure their guidance to inspire real growth and independence. Learn how to use the SAGE model to structure your input and tailor your message to the needs of your mentee.
Inspiring through storytelling and self-disclosure
Unlock the power of storytelling and self-disclosure to inspire and motivate as a role model. Sharing a well-timed anecdote about your own challenges can work wonders in boosting a mentee’s confidence. But there is one golden rule to ensure your stories truly foster learning. Uncover this essential principle in this quick lesson on the art of storytelling as a mentor.
Action planning for mentoring success
Bring all your new skills together by creating a personalised action plan for your next mentoring relationship. Step out into the workplace ready to build the confidence, impact, and influence of your team.
Who this course is for
Managers, leaders and professionals who help others learn at work. It is suitable for supervisors, frontline managers, team leaders, educators, medical practitioners and contributors to industry association mentoring programs.
Delivery modes
- Face-to-face, presenter-taught workshop
- Online workshop via the platform Zoom
Delivery style
This course is interactive and based on experiential learning. You will be involved in group conversations, discussing case studies and completing written exercises. There will be several opportunities to ask the course facilitator questions or request tips for dealing with your real-life situations. You will get the most from this course if you are:
- willing to contribute to group discussions
- confident communicating verbally in English
- comfortable participating in role-play style activities
- using a computer with a working camera and microphone (if enrolling in an online session of the course).
Materials
Course materials are shared electronically.
Recommended reading
Biswas-Diener, R. 2023. Positive Provocation: 25 Questions to Elevate Your Coaching Practice. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Brown, B. 2012, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Penguin, New York.
Gotian, R. & Lopata, A. 2024, The Financial Times guide to mentoring, A comprehensive guide to effective mentorship, often featured in professional mentoring discussions.
IGH3P. (2025). How Mentoring Builds Self-Awareness: The Foundation of Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved April 14, 2026, from https://www.igh3p.com/blog/110159-how-mentoring-builds-self-awareness-the
Omadeke, J. 2024, Mentorship unlocked: The science and art of setting yourself up for success, A guide to building career relationships in modern work environments, focusing on actionable tools and personal growth.
Rhodes, J. (2023). The Strength of Vulnerability: Surprising New Insights into Building Strong Mentoring Relationships. Evidence-Based Mentoring. Retrieved April 14, 2026, from https://www.evidencebasedmentoring.org/the-strength-of-vulnerability-surprising-new-insights-into-building-strong-mentoring-relationships/
Rolfe, A. (2022) Advanced mentoring skills: Taking your conversations to the next level, A focused guide for mentors looking to deepen their engagement.
Thurman, S., Bellot, A., & Grant, T. (2024). Building trust in mentoring relationships. Center for Engaged Learning. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
Sessions
Location
Face-to-face (Venue TBA, Sydney)
Other information
If your upcoming class is Face-to-face (Venue TBA, Sydney), the class is located at the Camperdown/Darlington campus but the exact classroom and building has not been assigned.
The exact location on campus is confirmed approximately five business days from a class start date and you will then receive a course preparation email with this information.
Meet the facilitators
Eleanor Shakiba
Eleanor Shakiba is an expert in positive psychology. She has taught over 50,000 people to think and speak in ways which build success.
Eleanor started her career as a writer. Next, she discovered a passion for adult education and moved into a training role at the University of Sydney. Today, she works as a training consultant and corporate coach. She specialises in the areas of communication skills, applied psychology and business applications of positive psychology.
The focus of Eleanor’s work is teaching technically savvy professionals to create, relate and communicate. She delivers a range of services to the corporate world, including positive psychology courses; leadership training and coaching; team building and strategic planning sessions; communication and conflict resolution workshops.
Eleanor is the author of Difficult People Made Easy and is currently writing her second book, 6 Habits of Savvy Female Negotiators. She has also created over ninety training programs and a range of online learning courses.
Eleanor is qualified in Social Anthropology, Adult Education, Counselling and Positive Psychology. She delights in helping professionals learn skills for success in the real world, using experiential (interactive) learning techniques. Her students describe Eleanor as ‘a lively and enthusiastic presenter who can keep you engaged for hours.’
