Overview
A mentor is a guide, a person who provides support and guidance and derives satisfaction from helping others succeed. Your role as mentor is to inspire, encourage, and support your mentee and to contribute to their professional and personal development.
Mentors play a variety of important roles in working with their mentee
- Sounding board
- Role model
- Source of their own and others' experiences
- Reflector
- Ideas challenger
- Provider of new and different perspectives
- Explorer of ideas, inner thoughts and doubts in a 'safe' environment'
- Introducer/connector.
Mentors DO
- Commit to the number of sessions identified within the program
- Set aside time for the mentoring process and honour all agreed actions.
- Keep information that your mentee has shared with you confidential.
- Establish open and honest communication and a forum for idea exchange.
- Foster creativity and independence. Help build self-confidence and offer encouragement.
- Provide honest and timely feedback to your mentee.
- Provide opportunities for the mentee to talk about concerns and ask questions.
- Build trust - share what you see as your major strengths, interests and passions. Explore similarities and differences.
- Get the mentee to set goals - they need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound). This applies to both work and personal goals.
- Above all, LISTEN.
Mentors DON'T
- Tell/instruct the mentee what to do.
- Over commit. If you don't have time to mentor don't volunteer.
- Give advice in matters you are not professionally trained in.