Unlocking Potential: The Mentor’s Role

On By Magda MiuIn 1. Leadership & Personal Development

Mentoring is often seen as a one-way street focused only on giving. While it undoubtedly involves sharing knowledge, experience, and support, it’s a significantly reciprocal journey. By guiding others, mentors rediscover their strengths, sharpen their insights, and find new perspectives. It’s a chance to give back while gaining a deeper understanding of oneself and the world. Mentoring is a fulfilling exchange that enriches both mentor and mentee.

This article is a mix of insights and inspiration, carefully curated from diverse sources. This is how I’ve crafted a roadmap that doesn’t just provide information, it empowers you with the tools and strategies to become an exceptional mentor.

Benefits of being a Mentor

What’s in it for a Mentor:

  • Better communication skills by explaining complex things in a simple way
  • Improved listening skills because you need first to understand and then to guide your mentee
  • Increased understanding of the business and how others perceive it
  • Get recognized as a trusted advisor and build a reputation as someone open to help
  • Get a new perspective on a subject due to sharing of ideas and reverse mentoring. Reverse mentoring is where the mentee becomes the teacher, guiding the mentor to learn new skills or a new way of doing things
  • Drives self awareness
  • Build a larger network of reliable allies
  • Get personal satisfaction of helping others.

How to be a good Mentor while remote

Here are the best practices for mentoring in a remote workplace:

  • Frequent check-Ins
    • during each session define some check-in points to ask the mentee what he/she learned until now, or how helpful was the provided info or the conversation overall
    • at the end of the session ask the mentee to repeat the next steps that should be done
  • Share resources with one another
  • Talk about things outside of work
  • Learn how to have effective conversations
  • Be empathetic to each other’s situations
  • If comfortable, go on camera

Mentoring styles – a different perspective

There are different types of mentoring styles. These styles help bring out the best in mentees, while also providing mentors with different ways to reach out to others and really make an impact. The five types of mentoring styles are:

  • Challenger – This type of mentor pushes a mentee, asks the hard questions, plays the devil’s advocate, and makes sure the mentee is really focused on their end goal. The challenger will also make sure to focus on the details, so the mentee will realise the importance of their particular goal. They are supportive but more firm than the rest of the mentoring styles.
  • Cheerleader – This type of mentoring is meant to cheer on a mentee, through staying positive and noticing all the growth and change a mentee is making. If a mentee makes a mistake, the cheerleader focuses on how the mistake will help the mentee grow. There is no negativity, and no pushing, just subtle and positive ideas.
  • Educator – This mentoring style is meant to teach mentees. A background in education or training would be key for this type of mentoring. The educator will take the time to create and execute training to help a mentee learn and develop. This style is positive but still pushes a mentee to excel. Educators will also study the mentee, understand where their skills are lacking, and where they need to educate the mentee differently to help fix those deficiencies.
  • Ideator – The ideator, or idea maker, is a mentor that helps the mentee brainstorm and think bigger than perhaps they do typically. This mentoring style focuses on thinking, planning, and dreaming. They will push a mentee that has little to no ambition and encourage them to value their skills more. This will push them to strive to accomplish even larger tasks.
  • Connector – The connector, or networker, helps mentees network socially, online, and in person. They will connect their mentee with people they know can help the mentee with their specific goals. They also help the mentee learn how to network themselves, so they know what events to attend or places to go to really get to know the right people.

Understand the Mentee’s Role

For a successful mentoring relationship, both mentees and mentors need to be involved.

Mentees’s role is to:

  • Define their objectives and establish meeting cadence, commitments, objectives.
  • Schedule all meetings, have an agenda, and follow up on action items. Showing up on time and prepared.
  • Stay proactive and engaged. Actively listen and stay open to mentor’s advice and ideas.
  • Follow up: talk about when the next meeting should happen and what will be the covered topics
  • Express appreciation for mentor’s help.

Building The Relationship

The most successful mentoring relationships are mutually beneficial and are based on reciprocal generosity and respect. Mentees receive support and accountability, while mentors gain the satisfaction of giving back and helping someone else to succeed and flourish.

Who drives the relationship? The mentee drives the mentoring relationship

Based on research the following best practices help to create the most effective mentorship relationships:

  1. Respect the other person and their time.
  2. Express gratitude.
  3. Collaborate on projects and solutions.
  4. Be open, honest, and fully authentic.
  5. Spend time getting to know one another.
  6. Always follow up.
  7. Commitment is key.
  8. Identify the mentee’s strengths, weaknesses, and biases.
  9. Give a full, undivided attention.
  10. Maintain clear and appropriate boundaries.

While a mentor shares their perspective, learnings and advice based on their past experience, they know the value of giving space and time to the other person to develop their own solutions. They encourage them to look beyond their own mental blocks and avoid mistakes they have made in the past. They do not feel threatened by or reject an idea that does not align with their beliefs. They rather encourage it by listening actively to the other person and giving them a chance to explore it.

Four questions have been found to be particularly effective in determining the delicate chemistry needed:

  • Can I clearly be helpful to this potential mentee? Have they reached out with clear reasons or intentions for why they’d like my help? Are there specific needs they have that I can address?
  • Can this person be completely open and honest? Are they willing to provide deep context about their problems and vulnerabilities? Will they be able to share data, metrics, goals, slide decks, etc. that will help in the process?
  • Is this person prepared? Do they tend to be proactive about setting up time and providing enough context or an agenda upfront? Do they direct conversations and ask specific questions? (Be wary of people who want more general help or to touch base without a topic in mind.)
  • Does this person give me energy? Do I usually learn things from this person myself? Does talking to them allow me to reflect differently on my own business or path? Has talking to them in the past felt like a good use of time? Do they inspire me to think more deeply, even though they have less experience?

Send these questions to your mentee. Frame it as some thoughts to consider before entering into a more regular arrangement. It will make you appear and feel prepared — and set strong expectations.

If the agenda of a meeting is too crowded or the mentee lists too many concerns, call a timeout and revise that agenda. The mentor and mentee should take five minutes to create a more realistic and focused list of tasks. Avoid trying to do too much, and be strict in narrowing down topics.

A great mentor asks these questions frequently:

  • “How can I help the other person?”
  • “Am I being biased or closed minded while listening to the other person?”
  • “Do I encourage them to share their viewpoint?”
  • “Do I hold them accountable?”
  • “Am I feeling excited or nervous about this relationship?”
  • “How can I encourage them to do better?”
  • “Am I being honest in my feedback?”

Questions to understand their background:

  • What is your educational and professional background (including your current role and how long you have been with the organisation)?
  • What are your greatest strengths? Greatest weaknesses?
  • What are your short-term career goals? Long-term career goals?
  • What are your hobbies/interests outside of work?

Questions to get a sense of what your mentee is expecting and to build an agreement/contract about how this mentoring experience will happen:

  • What do you see as my role as your mentor?
  • What ground rules should we set (e.g., confidentiality, openness, honesty)
  • What topics are off-limits (e.g., performance reviews, personal lives)?
  • What do you think will be challenging about this relationship?
  • What topics do you want to cover in our conversations?
  • What do you hope to gain from this relationship?
  • How do you prefer to communicate between meetings?
  • How often should we meet and where?
  • Who will keep the meeting notes?
  • What will happen if one of us is not able to join the session?
  • What are your objectives from this mentoring experience?
  • How would you know that you have achieve them?

Mentoring is more than just providing guidance, it’s about fostering growth, building relationships, and having a positive impact. The best mentors are those who not only share their knowledge but also inspire their mentees to believe in themselves and their abilities.

Be a good Mentor for your Mentee!

If you want to improve your mentoring style

Leave a comment