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Top 10 Best Practices for Mentees

by | May 15, 2015 | Facilitating Learning

 

We recently talked about the top ten best practices for mentors. But what about the mentees? Don’t worry, we have you covered!

Here are top ten mentee best practices from our 2015 Mentoring Matters Reader Survey:

1. Focus on achieving learning goals

  • Learning is the purpose and the payoff of mentoring. It’s easy to get sidetracked and lose focus. After three cups of coffee and little work on leadership development, mentoring fizzles out. Goals help you stay focused, moving in a positive direction, and  benchmark your progress.

2. Expect to drive the mentoring relationship   

  • Mentors are not mind readers. Be prepared to ask for what you need, when you need it. They won’t know what you need unless you tell them.

3. Create SMART goals that will contribute to your development

  • Fuzzy goals result in fuzzy outcomes. Make sure your goals are crystal clear to you and your mentor. Goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. 

4. Be authentic, open and honest

  • Your willingness to be vulnerable makes a significant difference in your growth and development. If you pretend that all is perfect, your mentor will never get to know the real you, and you will miss out on real learning opportunities.

5. Prepare for all mentoring meetings

  • Advance preparation for mentoring sessions will save time, make meetings more efficient and result in more meaningful learning.

6. Stay connected and in communication with your mentor

  • Utilize multiple ways to stay connected to your mentor. Regular and consistent communication is the name of the game, whether it’s face-to-face, email, Skype or telephone calls, the operative word is “and.”

7. Be willing to stretch and step out of your comfort zone

  • Expect your mentor to challenge you with questions and learning opportunities that might take you outside your comfort zone. They may initially make you uncomfortable, but the stretch is what will maximize your learning.

8. Ask for specific feedback

  • Your mentor’s honest and candid feedback will contribute to your self-awareness and get you to the next level. Practice asking for specific feedback and be prepared to receive it without being defensive.  Share feedback with your mentor and act on what you hear.

9. Focus on the future

  • It’s easy to get bogged down in day-to-day issues instead of focusing on your future. Keep in mind that mentoring creates momentum towards your future development. Be prepared to articulate your vision for yourself so that you and your mentor can create strategies for your future success.

10. Keep a journal

  • You will want to make notes of conversations that reflect your learning, and also track your mentoring progress. A journal is a great place to record insights and questions in preparation for mentoring meetings.  Although keeping a journal requires discipline and practice, it’s well worth the effort.

If you have other best practices that you’d like to add, please let us know!

5 Ways To Raise The Bar On Your Mentoring Relationships

by | Jan 23, 2015 | Facilitating Learning, Growth and Development, Making Mentoring Work For You, Mentoring Relationships

 

Starting Strong walks you through several fictional mentoring examples, highlighting the importance of the first 90 days of a mentoring relationship and pointing out invaluable conversations to have.

One of those fictional examples introduces readers to Rafa.

Rafa is a composite of hundreds of mentees we have worked with over the past 15 years. He’s an ambitious Millennial, and impatient to make it big and fast. To help him on his professional path, Rafa’s company has matched him with a savvy and experienced mentor. This is new for him, and he has no clue what to expect from a mentoring relationship.

Sound familiar? If you’re someone who is new to mentoring like Rafa, our new book, Starting Strong, can help you jumpstart your mentoring relationship and get it on solid footing right from day one.

Starting Strong models mentoring best practices by taking you inside a mentoring relationship, allowing you to observe, feel and experience six key mentoring conversations as they take place.

Mentoring ToolsAs the story evolves over the first 90 days of their mentoring relationship, Rafa comes to appreciate the importance of a good launch, and the critical role preparation plays in moving forward. He learns many lessons about how to build a trusting, open and honest relationship, how to maximize his mentoring time, and how to take charge of his own learning.

The Conversation Playbook that follows the story is jam-packed with strategies, tips and probing questions that you can use to your advantage while working with your mentees.

Here are five ways to use Starting Strong to deepen your relationship, stay on track and raise the level of your mentoring practice:

  1. Invite your mentees to read Starting Strong and discuss Rafa’s experiences.
  2. During one of your initial sessions with your new mentee, address the questions at the end of each chapter.
  3. Prepare for your mentoring meetings by selecting questions from the playbook to deepen your mentoring conversations.
  4. When you bring your mentoring relationship to closure, give your mentee a copy of Starting Strong as a gift. It will help them prepare for the transition from mentee to mentor.
  5. And, don’t forget to benchmark your mentoring practices against those described in the book.

Purchase your copy of Starting Strong today!