Mentor Hub

You may be Wondering... What is Mentoring?

Being asked to mentor someone can feel like an honor鈥攂ut it can also feel overwhelming and intimidating, especially if you鈥檝e never had a mentee before. You might question whether you鈥檙e even qualified to guide this person in their life or career. However, every expert must start somewhere. 

Mentoring is a relationship which supports learning and experimentation, helping individuals develop their potential. A mentoring relationship is one where both mentor and mentee recognize the need for personal development. Successful mentoring is based upon trust and confidentiality.

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Mentorship and Student Engagement

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Mentor Tips & Tricks

 

Get to know your Mentee well!

Get to know your mentee. Ask them a lot of questions. Take the time to take note of what makes them tick. What are their challenges? Goals? How can you support them? It's easy to want to tell someone what to do, but that's not your role as a mentor. The more you get to know them, the more you can build on the foundation of a successful and productive relationship.

Understand what your Mentee wants to learn?

As a first-time mentor, get to the core of what your mentee wants to learn. Mentors sometimes fall into the trap of doing more talking than listening. Understand why they picked you. What do they see in you that they want to develop? Talk about those objectives and then invite them to prepare the next time you use that skill. For example, they love your presentation style. Work on it together!

Help with the little things!

Often mentors want to provide big insights and give general advice. The best mentors are willing to help with little things that are actually big things. Mentors should be willing to speak to the mentees about how to craft an appropriate email, create a great presentation in PowerPoint and how to dress for different events. Mentors who are willing to get in the detail muck make a huge difference.

Know Yourself

Take time to assess exactly what you have to offer as a mentor鈥攜our skills, strengths, experiences, knowledge and networks. Go into the relationship knowing what you bring to the table and then partner with your mentee to see how that aligns with what they want to learn and share. Then you both can work together to make it a mutually engaging relationship.

Remember your Mentee's Situation

It's difficult, but important to balance the huge amount of experience (that qualifies you as a mentor) and the situation the mentee is in. A mentor has to remember what it was like when they were in this early stage, because not everything they can do now is also suitable for a mentee. The main question is: Is this advice (e.g. what I would do) also applicable in this very different situation?

Establish Expectations

As a mentor, it is important to set very clear expectations of what a thriving mentoring relationship looks like to your mentee. Firstly, the mentee needs to have a purpose for the mentoring relationship to be impactful. Secondly, the onus of taking notes, setting action items, learning and applying are on the mentee. As a mentor, you are there to provide guidance and support to further their goals.

Let the Mentee Lead

Much like coaching, mentoring is about guiding and empowering, not directing. Making the mentee the star鈥攇iving encouragement, helping identify skills and resources they both have and need, exploring ideas to reach their goals鈥攊s more meaningful than being prescriptive. Know what the mentee seeks from the relationship and let them lead. Use your expertise only to inform your questions.

Stop Judging Yourself!

Self-critique is often the roadblock keeping you from being great, because self-judging leads you to question every decision. But your mentee is focused on their own development. You only need to do your best, teach from experience and know you will always be working on what you teach. You're ready!

Practice Active Listening

One of the most important things one can do for a mentee is to listen. Let them talk. Don't feel like you need to have all the answers. To be honest, no one knows better about what is best for them than themselves. Many times, it just takes talking through things. If you can provide that sounding board, you are a valuable resource. 

Shift Between Coaching & Mentoring

A successful mentor uses both coaching and mentoring skills. Mentoring involves drawing upon the mentor's own skills, knowledge and experience to advise the mentee, whereas coaching incorporates open-ended questions in order to create awareness on behalf of the mentee. Toggling back and forth between pulling and pushing is the best way to provide a quality mentoring experience. 

Build Rapport & Support Them

Create a safe space and demonstrate a genuine interest in your mentee. Be supportive and honest, honor agreements and keep appointments. Always do what you say you鈥檒l do, wherever possible. Share your experience, challenges and wisdom, but don鈥檛 intervene too quickly to solve their problems. Ask guiding questions rather than advising. Encourage them to find their own solutions. Praise and empower.

Ensure the Relationship is Reciprocal

A trusting, collaborative relationship is foundational for mentoring partnerships. One vital element of the relationship is reciprocity. Each partner contributes to the relationship and learns from the other. Without the presence of learning, mentoring doesn鈥檛 exist. As a mentor, it鈥檚 key to engage and guide your partner appropriately to create and maintain a climate that supports learning.

Share the Good and the Bad

As a first-time mentor, it's important to realize you are not expected to be a superhero with every answer and every accomplishment. It's truly more important to be authentic and allow your mentee to learn from your mistakes, growing pains, good choices and best practices. Share the good with the bad, be OK with saying "I don't know" and introduce your mentee to your network for further growth.

Get Excited!

People like to feel good. Charge yourself up with great memories or music before the interaction. Then imagine you are "throwing" positivity at your mentee. Emotion rubs off, and they will remember you for it.

Mentor Resources

As a Mentor, you have a plethora of resources available to you!

 

At Mentor Collective, we seek to make life-changing relationships a feature of every student鈥檚 college experience. To realize this vision, we partner with forward-thinking institutions that are committed to equity, inclusion, and relationship-centered education.

Build the foundations of successful mentorship and develop job-relevant skills for your mentors with training you can trust.

 

Connect with a current student who shares a familiar course of study, interests, life experience, or aspiration in ways that work for both of you鈥攚hether it鈥檚 video chatting, texting, meeting for coffee, or a combination.

Build meaningful connections that go beyond surface-level networking profiles by feeling empowered to determine what you want in a mentor.

Being asked to mentor someone can feel like an honor鈥攂ut it can also feel overwhelming and intimidating, especially if you鈥檝e never had a mentee before. You might question whether you鈥檙e even qualified to guide this person in their life or career. However, every expert must start somewhere.

Want to learn more? Contact us at help@mentorcollective.org.

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