Recently, Michael Jemphrey handed over leadership of SIL’s Robust Mentoring initiative to Darrel Kauffman. To mark the transition, we asked both of them to reflect on their journeys with mentoring.
How did you first get involved in mentoring?
Michael:
When I began training as a translation consultant in 2002, there wasn’t much mentoring happening in West Africa. But one consultant with a vision for what mentoring could achieve offered to mentor about a dozen of us at once. It wasn’t ideal—there were too many of us—but we still learned far more than if we’d had no mentor at all.
Later, when I became a consultant myself, I chose to mentor just one or two people at a time. That smaller setting allowed for deeper conversations and interaction as we worked side by side at the translation checking desk. The trainees also learned from one another through that shared experience.
I also benefited from informal mentoring. I had a mentor, about ten years my senior, whom I could approach anytime for advice or perspective. That kind of informal support has had a lasting impact on my own continued growth.
Darrel: My entry into mentoring developed mostly during my time as the Administrator for Programs and Partnerships in the Isaiah 55 Service Group and further developed while I was the Co-Director of the group (now the SCO). I watched numerous role replacements where someone left and another person was taken from a language project and plopped into an administrative role with little to no preparation. Then when we realized several years ago that 30 percent of our staff would be gone within five years we had to start thinking about succession planning and preserving as much of the intrinsic knowledge and experience that would be lost if that 30 percent just disappeared.
That was my start and then with involvement with the mentoring training offered and discussions related about getting as many people trained in mentoring as possible my understanding of where mentoring could be an effective development tool expanded. I have been part of peer-to-peer mentoring, the recipient of one-on-one mentoring and the mentor in other relationships.
From early on as I encountered needs for mentoring I have been challenged with how do we really make mentoring part of our culture in SIL and where might it be most effective to do.
Michael, could you share how the Robust Mentoring initiative began and how it has grown?
By 2019, it was clear that mentoring across Africa was uneven and inconsistent. So we gathered mentors from across the continent to ask: How can we do this better?
Out of that week came two key initiatives :
- This Mentoring Matters website – a hub for resources and tools which Eszter Ernst-Kurdi, Training Coordinator for Francophone Africa at the time, got up and running in next to no time!
- Eszter and I then collaborated on the Introduction to Mentoring course – a six-week program designed for mentors, mentees, and supervisors.
Since then, the Introduction course has run (and been helpfully refined!) more than 30 times in English, French, and Spanish, with about 20 participants in each session. Breakout groups have been especially valuable, creating space for rich cross-cultural exchange.
One of the most important lessons has been alignment: ensuring mentors and mentees start with similar and clear expectations; that can take a bit of discussion. Research shows that without training, only about 30% of mentoring relationships succeed. With training for both mentors and mentees, success rates rise to nearly 90%. Part of that remarkable improvement is better aligned expectations.
Building on that foundation, Eszter and I developed additional courses:
- Practical Mentoring – for active mentors, with hands-on materials and debriefs.
- Essentials of Mentoring for Decision Makers – a shorter course for leaders wanting to better support mentoring in their units or organizations.
- …and arriving soon – Navigating Group Mentoring: In the Quest for Staff Development
How did the leadership transition come about?
Michael:
As Robust Mentoring expanded beyond Africa, it became clear the initiative needed a home within SIL at the global level. At the same time, I was taking on more responsibilities with the Creation Care team, which was also growing. It wasn’t sustainable to continue leading both.
So, together with my supervisor, we created a global Mentoring Coordinator role. Around that time, Darrel participated in the Essentials of Mentoring for Decision Makers course. His insights and passion for mentoring stood out immediately. After just a few conversations, it was clear he was the right person to take the baton.
Change in leadership can be a complex challenge. What is the role of mentoring in times of change?
Darrel: There is so much to learn and adjust to and discover in any change process. Having someone who has gone through changes or has experience, as you replace them, adds a lot of background knowledge and comfort as one takes on a new role. It eases the transition.
What have you each learned about mentoring through this process of passing the baton between the two of you?
Michael: This transition has reminded me again how vital it is to seek the Lord’s guidance when forming a mentoring team. I’m deeply grateful for the way He prepared the path for Darrel to take up the baton—bringing the same passion for mentoring, yet with his own unique strengths and fresh ideas for the role.
Darrel: It has been interesting as I discover what is happening in mentoring in various places around the world. I am learning to be patient in discovery and hold my preconceived ideas loosely and listen to the Holy Spirit through it all. It is a blessing to have Micheal to help guide me through this transition because I know that he has done so much to bring mentoring to where it is today and his experience and wisdom goes beyond just mentoring. It would be nice in some ways to be able to do a brain dump from Michael and get all he knows in one fell swoop. But then I wouldn’t be able to see how he interacts with people and how he has used his gifts to get Robust Mentoring developed as it is today.
Darrel, what is your vision for the future of Robust Mentoring in SIL?
Darrel: What I have found within SIL Global is that mentoring is uneven and not consistent. I would like to get a Global Team together so we can identify where mentoring is happening and learn from each other what is going well and what isn’t. Then we can begin making mentoring robust at all levels in SIL and in many domains such as leadership, training, succession planning, and personal development. Also, my vision is to provide resources for mentors and mentees to develop a culture of mentoring so that mentoring becomes a part of who we are. I see mentoring as a valuable element in building both a healthy organization and healthy staff. I would also like to see a free flowing sharing space, accessible to all, where we can ask questions or tell stories to continue to learn from each other.
Thank you for the opportunity to hear about your mentoring journeys and to get to know you better. We wish you both all the best!
Share your ideas and insights below under “Leave a Reply” or click the “Comment” button.
“Lovely reflection — well done on handing over through the mentoring baton in the journey from Michael’s era to Darrel’s vision.”