How to: Prepare to be a Great Mentor

Did you know that 80 percent of CEOs polled have had mentors?  

Having access to mentors have given potential leaders insider knowledge and access to power and resources. Mentoring is about helping another person learn through a one-to-one relationship. Being a mentor brings benefits to yourself and the mentee. Mentoring can make a positive difference in someone else’s career. To set yourself up for successful mentoring, the mentor needs to have an understanding of the mentoring process and in particular, his role as a mentor.

Here are some tips on how to prepare to be a great mentor:

1. Understand the mentoring process

Mentoring should not be confused with coaching, counselling or appraisal. It is a confidential relationship between both mentor and mentee and this confidence must be respected at all times.

 2. Clarify the objectives

Mentoring relates to the identification and nurturing of potential for the individual. Although the objectives of various individuals are broadly similar, each of them will have their own idea on how to achieve the objective and the help they require will differ. Therefore, ascertain the objectives with the mentee and be open to consider different approaches that the mentee wants you to help in achieving it.

 3. Gather background information

To build up a relationship with the mentee, the mentor will need to obtain some background information. The mentor will need to do some research of the background of the mentee, their personality, learning styles and ambitions. But the mentor will need to bear in mind to strike a balance between showing interest and being overly inquisitive.

We hope that this article is helpful. Do you have any tips you would like to add?

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