Speak to anyone who has achieved success in any walk of life, and the likelihood is that they will have been positively influenced by a mentor at some stage of their career. Here, for International Mentoring Day, Lisa Baker, principal consultant at t-three explores how a good mentor can help others and also what makes a good mentor.

How can a mentor help others?

A mentor is someone who provides guidance and support to a less experienced person, known as a mentee, to help them to grow and develop.

As a mentor you can help by:

  • sharing your knowledge and experience
  • providing advice or independent opinions
  • helping with goal setting
  • holding the mentee accountable for achieving their goals
  • offer encouragement to build motivation and confidence
  • helping the mentee to build their professional network and find resources.

What makes a good mentor?

  • Be a good listener – take the time to understand the mentee’s situation and tailor your advice.
  • Ask good questions – to help the mentee explore options and come up with solutions themselves, so that the mentee takes ownership of their own development.
  • Share your experience – bring your knowledge and experience to the conversation to provide options or highlight potential pitfalls.
  • Be nonjudgemental – recognise that the mentee’s situation or preferences may be different to your own and value diverse perspectives.
  • Give constructive feedback – reinforce positive actions and help the mentee to understand when their behaviours or approach may be counter-productive to their goals.
  • Ask for feedback – check in with the mentee to ensure the mentoring relationship is working for them. What are you doing that’s helpful? Is there anything you could do differently?

How to set up a mentoring relationship for success?

  • Encourage your mentee to take ownership – of their goals, their actions and the mentoring meetings. A mentor might be there to guide and support but the mentee should always be driving the mentoring relationship. Agreeing this at the start of the mentoring can be helpful, particularly for those new to mentoring.
  • Agree how you want to work together – there are a number of things to consider in order to make the relationship work. How frequently will you meet? Online or in person? Can the mentee contact you outside of the mentoring sessions? How will you both manage the confidential information that is shared?
  • Take notes – capture the pertinent information and agreed actions. This can be helpful to refresh your memory of what was discussed prior to the next meeting.
  • Get to know the mentee as a person – connect beyond the task at hand to understand what’s important to them and how they like to work. Chemistry is an important component when it comes to successful mentoring relationships.
  • Decide what’s next – if a formal mentoring programme concludes, discuss with the mentee in the final session what happens next. Will the mentoring relationship come to an end? Or will you continue to keep in touch, becoming an ongoing and informal relationship? Each mentoring relationship is unique, and an extension can only happen if agreed by you both.

Key takeaways

In summary, being a mentor is both rewarding and a privilege. Great mentoring relationships are characterised by mutual respect, trust and good communication. Whilst being a mentor is often associated with imparting your knowledge and experience, the reality is you will learn a lot from your mentee. So, if you’re curious about becoming a mentor, go ahead as you may play a key role in helping others to thrive in their careers.

Get in touch

For more information on this topic, contact our expert below or meet our team here.