Igniting excellence: Nurturing evaluation through modern mentoring

Abstract Information: Do you remember your first year as an evaluator? Coming to grips with the many challenges and expectations. Imagine if you had had a mentor in those early days. Evaluators today are entering a fast-paced, complex, integrated, and diverse work environment. Employers and evaluation managers need to be helping navigators. In this ignite presentation, I share experiences mentoring emerging evaluators using modern mentoring principles. Modern mentoring extends beyond augmenting evaluation skills and developing networks. It includes assisting mentees to voice their concerns about climate anxiety and creating a culture of support from the negative effects of international war and conflict. It also includes mentoring for leadership by supporting values like empathy, ethics, and culture. Modern mentoring also includes cross-generational mentoring that bridges generational gaps and builds knowledge and application of AI, digital tools, and social media. As workplaces constantly change and the evaluation world evolves, modern mentoring ensures emerging evaluators shine to their full potential and provide diverse ideas, practices and approaches to evaluation.