CMAA NATIONAL MENTORING PROGRAM

 The delicate art of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves – Steven Spielberg

The CMAA Mentoring Program for Club Managers will commence again in May of 2019.

Pairings of experienced Managers (Mentor) and aspiring leaders (Mentee) across the network of Clubs in NSW, Queensland and Victoria are the key to success in this valuable program.  This is a great opportunity to increase and consolidate networks and gain valuable professional knowledge through a series of scheduled webinars, built to enhance the program.

Mentoring is one of the most powerful and impactful development methods an organisation can use to support and grow its people from within.  It brings significant, long-lasting and wide-ranging benefits not only to the mentees and mentors but also to teams, the wider organisation as well as to key third parties such as the mentees’ line manager.

Becoming a Mentee offers many positive outcomes – anything from a simple boost in confidence to outcomes that are profound and life-changing.  Being able to discuss potential issues and gain clarity in an open and offline environment about your career and your development are just the start:  Gaining practical advice and help on organisational politics and behaviour (understanding the formal and informal structures of your organisation) is invaluable to any manager, and particularly those who are new or up and coming in the industry.

Spending quality thinking time with a Mentor, who can help bridge the experience gap, is hugely beneficial.  It can help to increase the Mentee’s confidence in their own potential and ability and feel more secure in their role due to their ability to discuss ideas and potential problems with their Mentor – an independent and unbiased third party.

Mentoring not only benefits the Mentee, but it can also be hugely rewarding for the Mentor. Creating opportunities to practice sound developmental behaviours and additional skills outside their direct line of responsibilities, development of self-awareness and enhanced job satisfaction.  This can be two-fold, creating a great sense of pride in your mentee’s achievements, and leaving a lasting legacy, in line with the philosophy of clubs and the spirit of what the club movement is founded on, giving back to our community.

Adopting a holistic approach to mentoring enables individuals and organisations to create positive change; blending support with challenge, all within a unique learning environment.

• Mentors also describe feeling more confident in their roles and often comment on the satisfaction derived from being a small part of someone else’s success. When an organisation has a strong pool of effective mentors, it has a notable impact on the overall culture of the organisation.

The benefits can also flow through the organisation as a whole, organizations who have used mentoring programs have found, mentoring relationships help in a number of ways

• Improving leadership skills in Mentors, growing competence and confidence
• Higher levels of engagement in Mentees, contributing to better skills, greater self-awareness, and ultimately positively impacting organisational performance
• building trust and overcoming cultural differences, helping a number of organisations cultivate a culture, strongly supportive of individual and team excellence.

Mentoring has also been well evidenced to impact positively on an organisations’ retention, recruitment, and succession planning and diversity management.

It is our goal to have 15 matched pairs for the 2019 program.  Want to make a difference or be a part of that difference? You could be a mentor.

Do you have talent in your club that could benefit from an extra hand in Developing Career Skills, Goal Setting, increased Personal and Professional Development?  They could prosper for you as a mentee.

Contact Lori Luhrmann on or Brad Jones on or go to our website.