Discussing ground rules is one of the most important conversations you will ever have with your mentoring partner. Ground rules not only manage expectations in your mentoring relationship, but they also lay the foundation for building and strengthening your relationship, allowing you to focus on learning. Rather than restrict the relationship, they encourage and support accountability. Without them, you may end up spending more time managing the relationship than actually learning from your mentor. Here are some strategies for setting ground rules in place:

1. Focus on:
   • How you will go about allocating and managing your mentoring time
   • How you want to give and receive feedback
   • Your mutual role expectations
   • How and when you will connect and communicate with each other
   • How you will address stumbling blocks should they occur
   • What steps you will follow if you need to prematurely end the relationship for any reason
2. As you discuss your ground rules, keep in mind that they should not restrict your relationship. Their purpose is to encourage and support accountability.
3. Once you and your mentoring partner have decided on ground rules, be sure to schedule some checkpoints to determine whether the ground rules are working for you or simply providing unnecessary obstacles.