Take time to get to know your mentee.

At the Over My Shoulder Foundation, our mission is to raise the awareness of the positive impact that mentoring can have, both cross-generationally and cross-culturally. If you are interested in helping guide a younger person to success, we wanted to share some helpful tips for how to become a mentor courtesy of Management Mentors:

• In order to build a strong relationship, you need to first take the time to get to know each other. While it’s important to share your wisdom, it’s even more important to listen to what your mentee has to say.
• Discuss what each of you expects to gain out of this mentoring relationship and outline goals that you would like to achieve.
• Be open about your ideas, thoughts, and feelings about the mentoring relationship and encourage your mentee to do the same.
• Determine up front how often the two of you will meet and the preferred type of communication, whether it be in person or on the phone.
• To be most efficient, come up with a rough plan of what you plan to talk about with your mentee prior to your meetings, and be ready to adjust your agenda as necessary.

It’s always important to keep in mind that it takes two people to build a strong mentoring relationship, and establishing expectations of each other up front can help the relationship to be mutually beneficial.

To learn more about how to become a mentor, please contact us at the Over My Shoulder Foundation.

Image Source:  U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region