Group mentoring is very different from 1:1 mentoring, but plays an important part of mentoring in general, either by itself or alongside individual based programs. Groups have one mentor with up to seven mentees (If there are too many mentees it can become a webinar or info session rather than a small group feel). Sometimes there can be a mix of both mentors and mentees.

Group mentoring and Peer Circle mentoring are similar in nature – the key difference is that with Circle mentoring programs, it is peer driven – in that a peer is the program facilitator rather than a mentor. These programs are for peers to meet amongst themselves.

Today, people are used to participating in conference calls, which have now become a way of life in all areas of business and education.

By piggybacking on popular conference call software, program mentors and administrators are able to run group mentoring programs, usually between one and seven participants (a cohort) and run sessions where mentees are able to learn from each other and discuss topics as a group.

Either fully online, or a mix of in-person and online, it’s easy to host mentoring sessions within a group setting.

This simple process is as follows:

1. The program facilitator (either the administrator, mentor or peer), creates a group and selects participants to join
* The algorithm helps find people with similar interests and needs
2. After scheduling times are decided, participants are notified via email of their sessions
* The facilitator creates Zoom/Team/Meet/etc. links separately, and cuts and pastes the links into the session page
3. Topics and/or an agenda are created for the cohort, along with any pre-work needed that are added to the resources page
4. The group meetings take place – either virtually or in-person
5. Notes are taken in the shared chat functionality of the conference call
6. Mentee and mentors take notes in their personal journals (not shared with the group)
7. Virtual meetings are recorded and placed in an archive for future reference, or for cohort participants to review who have missed a session
8. Survey tools (Survey Monkey or Qualtrics or MentorEase’s own survey tool) are utilized to garner feedback
9. Customized resources are provided to help participants such as ice-breaker questions, preparing for a conference call, tips for running an effective circle mentoring session etc.