Types of Mentoring | Forms of Mentoring | Mentoring Categories

Mentoring is defined as the provision of counsel regarding major career and life issues by a typically older, wise and more experienced adviser (mentor) to a mentee who is typically outside the mentor's direct line of responsibility.
A mentoring relationship normally focuses on the skills, career and personal development of the mentee.
There are several main types of mentoring (not mutually exclusive, overlapping):
1. Informal Mentoring: also known as natural mentoring or one-to-one mentoring, informal mentoring happens when an experienced person decides to look after someone less experienced than him or herself. This kind of mentoring relations form spontaneously. They are normally based on similar expertise, interests or joint history between mentor and the mentee.
2. Positional Mentoring: this is a type of mentoring in which the mentor is the mentee's superior or line manager. Although most managers mentor their employees to some extent, there are several disadvantages associated with this type of mentoring, including the risk of favoritism, insufficient impartiality and similar potential conflicts between the two roles of the mentor.
3. Formal Mentoring: this is an institutionalized form of mentoring, typically in the form of a corporate mentoring program attempting to achieve the advantages of natural mentoring while recognizing the limitations of positional mentoring.
4. Situational Mentoring: this is a more short-term form of mentoring than the other three, techniques aimed at achieving a specific objective or solving a particular problem. Over time, this time of mentoring can develop into a more long-term relationship.
5. Group Mentoring: this involves one mentor to form a relationship and work with several (up to four or so) mentees at the same time.
6. Team Mentoring: this involves several mentors working together mentoring groups of mentees.
7. Peer Mentoring:
8. Online Mentoring: also known as E-mentoring or telementoring, involves communication between the mentor and mentee over the Internet.
9. Training-based Mentoring: a form of situational mentoring tied directly to a training program. A mentor is assigned to a mentee to help that person develop specific skills being taught in the program.