ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the final stage in more detail; identifying a point of closure, winding down the mentoring relationship and formally saying goodbye as mentor and mentee. A well-managed final meeting, where participants have the opportunity to review what they have achieved, consider next steps and agree on a formal conclusion to the mentoring, is viewed much more positively than a relationship that has been allowed to drift and fizzle out. People can expect the end of a mentoring relationship in this context to vary each time for each mentoring pair. Unlike many leadership or management development programmes, parental mentoring has no fixed point for conclusion nor 'graduation sign off'. Pinning busy mentees down to a final session can be quite a challenge, particularly where they have returned to a bigger role or are on reduced hours and feel under pressure to deliver more and perhaps in shorter timeframes than before.
