Whether you’re a seasoned mentor or mentoring for the first time, being a great mentor requires having the right mindset and skills. Here are our top 6 tips to help you become a better mentor for your mentee:
What is a Mentor?
A mentor is an advisor that supports the professional development of a peer (known as a ‘mentee’) and often will have extensive experience in the field that the mentee is interested in. Successful mentors will carry quality traits including positivity, patience, and empathy as well as lead with confidence and expertise. Mentors should also be good communicators, have excellent leadership skills, and have the desire to help someone reach their full potential. The idea behind a mentor-mentee relationship is to have a mutually beneficial partnership that’s based on trust and honest communication. Some mentorships are long-term and include a mentoring program with a structured action plan while others are short-term and involve helping a mentee through a specific situation. The mentor acts as a trusted resource and role model that leads the mentee toward professional growth.
Why are Mentors Important?
Not only are mentors investing in the professional growth of their mentee, but they’re also investing in the future of their workplace. It’s proven that mentoring shapes future leaders who often lead within their current organization – it’s no wonder 70% of Fortune 500 companies offer mentoring programs. Guiding, inspiring, and supporting mentees to reach their fullest potential will only increase their trust towards their current organization. And mentees are not the only ones who benefit – mentors report having greater job satisfaction, with 28% of them receiving raises after the mentorship program, and are six times more likely to be promoted than non-mentors.
6 Tips for Becoming a Great Mentor
1. Get to Know Your Mentee Well
First things first, make sure you get to know and understand your mentee well on both a personal and professional level. Find out who they are, what they’re interested in learning, what their career goals are (both long- and short-term), and how they prefer to receive feedback. An important responsibility of the mentor is to create an environment that feels open and safe and that encourages the mentee to share information and thoughts honestly. Knowing who your mentee is as a person will help you recognize their personality and patterns, allowing you to be the right type of mentor they need. Set aside that time to invest in getting to know them – plan mentoring activities, go to conferences, or host ‘breaking the ice’ meetings – this is a crucial first step you don’t want to miss.
2. Adjust Your Mentoring Style
Once you know who your mentee is and what their goals are, it’s time to adjust your mentoring style to meet their needs. Perhaps your mentee has a difficult time stepping out of their comfort zone – be the person that guides them through challenges without pressuring them. Or maybe your mentee feels confident in new situations but is looking for expert advice – try a hands-off approach while providing feedback and insights along the way. If your mentee needs a boost of confidence – keep your mentee motivated and supported, especially in challenging or discouraging times, and be their cheerleader. At some point, you should allow your mentee the opportunity to “take the reins” and practice what they’ve learned. Remain objective towards your mentee’s goals and choose or create tasks carefully that will propel them on their career journey without dispiriting or overwhelming them. And most importantly, don’t forget to celebrate their wins together!
3. Discuss Expectations
Once you both are comfortable and know each other well, begin discussing expectations. It’s important to make sure both sides have a clear understanding of expectations before a plan is created and set in motion. Take time to create a well-defined structure and consider situations like mentorship purpose, frequency of meetings, roles and responsibilities, and how mentoring results will be measured. When expectations aren’t made clear, aren’t discussed, or change throughout the program, there is an increased risk of mentee dropout, resulting in unachieved results.
4. Set Goals and Create the Plan
Once you’ve discussed expectations, it’s time to set goals and create an action plan. Sit down with your mentee and turn their career goals into specific, measurable tasks and objectives that can be accomplished over a set timeline. Goals should be directly related to their desired career path and might include objectives like learning and development, upskilling the mentee, or elevating productivity and engagement. These action plans are largely customized to fit the needs of the mentee with the intention being to create the best pathway to success. Visual aids like Gantt charts, checklists, and shared docs can be extremely useful for staying on track and makes understanding the plan easy. If there are a lot of goals, break them down into smaller milestones that are less intimidating, more realistic, and easily achievable. Before you set the plan into motion, walk through the plan with your mentee to set the focus and inspire motivation. Throughout the mentorship timeline, be sure to track and analyze their progress. This step is beneficial to not only allowing your mentee to understand how much they’ve grown in their career during the program, but it also allows you to better adapt your mentoring techniques if their growth is not progressing as expected.
5. Active Listening and Clear Communication
Throughout the entire mentorship program, be sure you’re fostering an environment that builds trust and companionship. One critically important way to do this is to actively listen and communicate clearly. Not only are you building a positive environment and experience for your mentee but you’re also warding off any misunderstandings. Example techniques include using non-verbal cues (think eye contact, body language, and facial expressions), asking open-ended questions, practicing empathy, and giving verbal affirmations. While you’re speaking with your mentee, follow the WAIT exercise (Why Am I Talking?). This can help you speak with purpose and stay focused in your discussions.
6. Offer 2-Way Constructive Feedback
When setting expectations with your mentee, be sure to include constructive feedback. During each meeting throughout the program, you andyour menteeshould both participate in providing feedback on mentoring techniques, mentee work, the mentor-mentee relationship, and any growth-related concerns. When providing constructive feedback, lead it with appropriate examples and offer actionable solutions. It’s important to stay supportive, honest, and empathetic – remember, this program is all about elevating someone to their highest potential, with you as their leader.
Divurgent’s Mentorship Program
We have a ‘One Divurgent Mentorship Program’ that offers our employees the opportunity to enhance their career development through a 1:1 relationship with a mentorship partner. It’s one of the many tools in our career development tool kit and it’s an important component of employee and leadership development. Our mentorship relationships are rewarding for both the mentor and mentee through the sharing of differing perspectives and insight, the dismantling of “silos,” and through collaborative enhancement of our One Divurgent Culture.
About the Authors
Amanda Sorg is the Content Writer at Divurgent. She focuses on strategizing and creating impactful, meaningful content that drives the connection of readers and clients to the Divurgent community and offerings. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Anthropology from the University of North Florida and holds certifications in Digital, Content, and SEO Marketing. To learn more about Amanda, visit her on LinkedIn.
Kelly Swift is the Director of Team Resources at Divurgent. She focuses on talent management, career development, benefit administration, and Divurgent’s cultural experience and engagement. Kelly has 16 years of leadership and operational experience in Healthcare IT consulting. To learn more about Kelly, visit her on LinkedIn.
