Guide for mentors
How to be an Inspiring Mentor
There are some things to keep in mind while working with a mentee to help make the experience positive and beneficial for everyone involved.
Initial objectives should include:
- Establish Expectations: Share how you can help the mentee based on what they are hoping to achieve through this relationship. Provide your availability, identify how you can best be reached, and draw appropriate boundaries.
- Be Present with Your Mentee: Focus on the needs and goals of your mentee. It is important to be present during scheduled meetings and tuned in to the concerns of your mentee. Make sure to ask follow-up questions for clear understanding, rather than making assumptions.
- Get to Know Your Mentee: Ask your mentee questions about their background, aspirations, or how they enjoy spending their time. Getting to know them authentically as a person is a great tool for offering well-tailored advice. Gradually earn their trust.
- Make Connections: One invaluable form of support you can give to your mentee is connecting them with opportunities and other Team Members. Help them to build their professional network by offering to put them in touch with relevant individuals.
A Simple Approach to Mentorship
At the first meeting, briefly introduce yourself. They will have seen your Linkedin profile. Ask them to share their background, their challenges and goals (their dream). Give the time to them, with the mentor asking good leading questions to draw out the mentee, and ideally put them at ease. Useful steps to remember are:
S – Stop and suspend judgement
L – Listen and learn
A – Assess and analyze
T – Test ideas and teach with tools
E – Expectation setting and encouraging the dream
At the end, summarize the meeting and set clear expectations for next steps. Schedule the next meeting.
Common Mentoring Challenges
- Understanding the mentee's knowledge and skills.
- Identifying the mentee's motivation.
- Building the mentee's confidence.
- Setting reasonable goals for the working engagement.
- Deciding on the best solution to a given mentoring challenge.
- Keeping the mentee engaged.
Key Mentor Responsibilities:
- Build a Shared Action Plan
Together, you and your mentee should create an action plan to achieve the long-term career objectives that your mentee established at the beginning of the relationship. You should help your mentee to determine where to focus and how best to accomplish career goals. Define goals of the relationship. Clarify what the mentor provides - Identify Effective Discussion Topics
The topics you discuss during mentoring sessions should be centered around the specific goals you and your mentee agreed upon for the relationship. - Monitor Mentee Engagement
Understand what the mentee needs Mentees must be active learners in this relationship. Mentees should be open to sharing their career goals, successes, and failures, as well as receiving feedback and advice. As a mentor, you can provide guidance organically by drawing from similar experiences along your path to those voiced by the mentee. Engagement can fluctuate over time due to a variety of personal and organizational factors. Try to drive aspiration to increase or maintain mentee enthusiasm. During check-ins with your mentee, discuss the extent to which their current role enhances their motivational drivers. - Identify Effective Mentoring Activities
Plan out activities to build your relationship with your mentee centered around skill development, knowledge sharing, networking, and career advice. - Foster an Effective Relationship Through Commitment
Prioritizing meetings with your mentee throughout the relationship is critical in order for you both to benefit fully from the relationship. By sticking to an agreed-upon action plan, the positive momentum is carried forward toward reaching career goals.