It is important when you decide you are going to be a mentor to someone; that you understand what it is you have to offer the individual. It is critical to also understand what they want you to help them with; many mentors will in their first ‘meet’ discuss what the focus will be. Another key factor in the early stages is to ‘introduce yourselves’; provide a bit of a background for the mentor and the mentored.
What is mentoring?
Some get mentoring and managing confused; I like to compare to parenting versus friends. For many we grow up and our parents ‘manage’ us as children; and then we become adults and they become friends or ‘advisors’.
Someone who asks to be mentored is not looking for someone to manage their life; they want someone who can instil wisdom and knowledge into them. Often people will seek someone in a senior role in their industry, or someone they want to be like.
Mentoring is like coaching, it can be used to grow ideas and be a sounding board to help an individual achieve certain outcomes (which would be discussed early on).
Do I have to mentor someone if I am asked?
Well I think it is best you only do it if you feel you can offer something to the asking individual. Be realistic to the time available to you to commit to mentoring this individual.
What can I offer….
In your preliminary meetings, it is important to get an understanding to why they selected you to mentor them. Is it because they see you are a senior in their field and have many more years of knowledge and might be able to help them ‘avoid pitfalls’ in their journey.
Working out a set of goals, outcomes or achievements which the mentored individual wants will also help you to create a ‘road map’. There are many online resources for helping you to create this; and remember it should be a fairly easy extra-curricular activity to undertake.
Use your personal experience to help them to learn from your life lessons, it is also important for both parties to respect each other and that it is a ‘safe environment’ where everything said is in confidence (unless otherwise stated).
Do I have to wait to be asked?
You do not have to wait for someone to ask you; you might spot someone who you feel you could provide them your life lessons which you feel might benefit them. In this instance you are looking for a protégé; often this person might ‘remind you of when you started out’ or similar.
Proteges are slightly different to the more traditional mentor; as it is asked in the reverse manner. However presented in the right light it can still be a win-win for both parties.
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