Mentoring Tips - Here Are The Takeaways to Improve Your Mentees

Tips For Mentors To Improve Their Mentee - Here Are The Takeaways From Meetings

Mentoring is a big commitment requiring a lot of work from both mentors and mentees. It can be life-changing for everyone involved, but they must be ready to put in the work in all earnest to make the process a success.  

Here, the mentor's role is vital because he will step into the shoes of a friend, philosopher, and guide to his mentee. In all ways, the mentee will look up to his mentor, which means the mentor must be at his very best.

Mentoring is a structured process, and the meeting lies at the core of the mentoring process. To ensure mentees get the most out of their time with you, their mentor, here are a few things you must take care of.

Encourage your mentee to come prepared to the meeting

Many would-be mentees believe it is their mentors' job to prepare the schedule and plan for meetings. But they do not understand that the process is not about the mentor; it is about them and their development.

Coming unprepared to meetings shows a lack of dedication and commitment. Many mentors do not like it when their mentees come to meetings impromptu (no documents, no information on anything). It is essential to make this clear at the onset and set expectations.

Greet the mentees and build a rapport

Mentors must build a working rapport with their mentees. Try to personalize the meetings as much as possible. For example, please note anything your mentee did recently or compliment them on something different you see about them. It can be a new haircut, a new bag, or a new sweater.

Welcome the mentee to the meeting warmly by saying ‘Hi <mentee name>! I am happy to see you here today. How have you been doing?’ If you do this consistently, you will soon earn your mentee’s trust and increase their chances of revealing their real issues.

Establish clear objectives for every meeting

Setting objectives for every meeting helps mentees set a course for their development. Without a plan or an objective for every meeting, the process will become haphazard and frustrating.

You may gel well with your mentees, but you need to set goals because they add structure to meetings and give them direction. It also shows that you value each other’s time.  

Explore the objectives and ask questions

Once the objectives are set, you and your mentee must explore them in greater detail. For example, you can start with questions like, ‘what are the main bottlenecks I am facing to get a promotion? ‘What are the things I can change about myself to improve my relationship with my spouse or colleagues at work?’

Once the objective is identified, ask the mentee what they need to do to resolve that problem. Remember, a mentor’s job is not to give solutions. Let the mentee come up with answers. When you have some answers, then suggest some more ideas.

Discuss possible roadblocks and steps to tackle them

You can be confident that even the best laid out plans will throw up some roadblocks. As a mentor, you must anticipate them and help the mentee identify how they can be best resolved.

It will help the mentees remain focused on their goals and not get disheartened when they face problems. Always align the goals with reality because setting unrealistic goals can lead you and your mentee to failure.  

Setting an action item

Once the goals for each meeting are set and possible roadblocks are identified, help the mentee create an action item to reach the goal. Action items will take them towards their goals, leading to tangible results.

But as always, ask your mentee what steps or actions they must take to make progress towards the goals. Once they have come up with a few ideas, suggest some more ideas of your own.  

Closing the meeting

Once the action items are decided upon, inform your mentee that you are sure he will complete them. Acknowledge the progress the mentee has achieved so far. Reiterate the to-do items and set up the plan and objectives to be discussed in the next meeting.

Next, set up a date for the next meeting to go over the progress achieved on the goals agreed upon in the last session. Finally, remind your mentee of your faith in his abilities and express confidence that he will soon begin to see change.  

You can develop your own steps on how you would like to conduct the meeting to make it more productive. If you ignore these tips, your mentoring will likely return mediocre results.

And when things don’t move, both mentor and mentee become frustrated, and the entire process is defeated. As a mentor, your job is to empower your mentees and ensure they become better at goal setting, eventually becoming better. Contact Mentorcloud to learn more.

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