An effective mentor is a wall flower. Once the mentoring partner has received the benefit of the mentoring relationship, it's as if the mentor fades back on to the wall, and the most vivid impression of the partner is the skill that he or she has developed, not the person who helped along the way...

I like to think of the mentor as the "seasons of the year". In the spring (beginning of relationship), we plant and seed, in the summer we grow strong; in the fall, we harvest, in the winter time, we have achieved our goals, rest and restart the cycle. If you are a special 'plant', you may even bloom twice a year.

I like your metaphors :)))

An effective mentor is like a gardener, tending and nursing the delicate saplings. Watering them and weeding, and protecting from harsh weather when required.It is a full time job and one has to be pasionate about this profession. Rubina

A mentor at the same time can also be portrayed as a shadow, only meaningful to those who find something (someone) that calls your attentionin to it. Otherwise you may ignore it, but it is present whether you notice it or not.

When I first saw this activity, I thought it was quite easy... I could have written several metaphors, but when I started thinking deeply about this, I decided to wait and reflect more. The first metaphor that came to my mind was related to one of my hobbies: taking care of bonsais (small Japanese trees), but that looked like a parent-child relationship and wouldn''t apply to mentoring. Then I thought of two trees growing together, but then I thought that they might compete (for sunlight) and that shouldn't apply to mentoring. I then thought of husband-wife relationships, both sharing objectives, but then I thought that relationship would deserve a workshop on its own!!! So, as you can see, I'm running out of ideas due to deep reflection. I think that the mentoring relationship is unique and it is extremely difficult to compare all its components with any other relationship. However, I like the metaphors most of you have suggested, since they resemble at least one or many aspects of the relationship between the mentor and the mentee. Keep posting, it's really interesting to see so many points of view on an issue which seems so simple on the surface.

How about mentor as advocate? An advocate for students as well as for mentoring partners in the profession...

The metaphor I always use about my volunteer work (and thus a lot of mentoring and coaching that I do) is cultivating a garden. As a mentor I need to assess many things about the environment of the garden and all the living things in it, including myself as one of the gardeners. I work with other gardeners (mentors, teachers) and learn and share with them as they are tending different parts of the garden than my particular patch. And the plants, sculptures, and fountains in my part of the garden also get my attention. Some need a little more daily attention - various kinds of plants (students, co-workers, colleagues, trainees) and other just need help cleaning and clearing annually (other colleagues) and still others might new repair from are particularly heavy storm that has passed through.