Mentoring/Mentors
Long Term Mentoring Program – Mentor’s Guide
Responsibilities in the Mentoring Relationship:
- Maintain confidentiality
- Share information
- Understand what degree of detail is necessary in the skill development
- Encourage the development of the Mentee’s individual style and confidence
- Communicate best practices and methods
- Devote time to listening to the needs of the Mentee
- Get feedback
- Be flexible around meeting times
- Be realistic about your time availability and don’t over commit
Communication Techniques:
- Listen actively and give your mentee your complete focus (no checking email during mentoring sessions!)
- Ask open-ended questions instead of simple yes or no queries. Encourage the sharing of specific stories to help you discover your mentee's perspective.
- Use probing questions after your mentee shares stories. This shows you're engaged and will allow you to narrow the focus of the conversation to your mentee's specific needs.
- Asking mirroring questions or repeat back what you heard, to ensure you understand your mentee's perspective.
Activities and Discussion Approaches:
- Invite your mentee to "shadow" you to a key meeting so he/she can gain insight into your style of interaction. Meet before the "shadowing activity" for leveling of expectations. Debrief afterward to gain insights and answer questions.
- Forward articles, books, or websites that could be of interest to him/her.
- Discuss barriers you encountered and how you overcame them while acquiring the focused skill/knowledge.
- Ask your mentee to envision the end goal (desired skill). "What would success look like?" Relate this picture of success to the learning plan. Ensure the necessary elements/steps are in place to meet the vision.
- Discuss how skill may be acquired and applied in mentee's current project.
- Introduce mentee to content experts/role models in the focused skill area.
- Attend a presentation that your mentee delivers. Debrief and provide feedback.
- Seminar, Classes, and Courses: Offer suggestions from which your mentee could benefit. Ahead of the seminar/class/course, discuss possible learnings/applications. Afterwards, follow up on how the learnings might be applied. Consider attending the seminar/class/course together!
- Have your mentee present or demo the learned skill to you for coaching and feedback
- Talk about your career choices, both upsides, downsides. Share your key learnings.
- Ask for your mentee's advice on an issue you face.
- Think of pieces of your work your mentee can help with, whether part of a blueprint, a bug, a user story, a collateral piece, etc.
- Read the same book, share learning and application ideas.
- Agree to join in some mutually interesting activity.
