I talk a lot about the mentor’s toolbox. The toolbox provides your mentors with training and equips them with strategies, templates, and a whole lot of resources to support them in their mentoring practice.
But what about your mentees? They so need training and a mentoring toolkit too. Because then they will know how to effectively engage in mentoring as they have the understanding and the tools to do so.
There is a lot of talk about “how to be an effective mentee”, but often mentees need to know how to ‘be’ this and undertake the mentee role successfully. As a result, they gain the most benefit possible from the mentoring relationship.
So, here are 7 considerations for your programme to amplify the importance of the mentee and help them be an active participant in your programme. In this way, they will be able to take the lead in the mentoring partnership:
Your mentees need to:
- Understand the value of mentoring and how they can benefit from it.
- Understand their role as a mentee and what they bring to the mentoring relationship.
- Be clear about their professional development needs and goals.
- Know how to achieve value-for-time in the mentoring meetings.
- Develop and practice communication skills that influence the quality of their mentoring relationship and workplace relationships.
- Know how to establish and reach significant milestones for their career progression.
- Examine their self-leadership skills and learn ways to enhance these.
How do you support your mentees? What training and other processes do you have in place in your programme to put your mentees in the driver’s seat?
