The ingredients that make a great mentor
Throughout history, mentors have shaped the personal and professional lives of those around them. As a mentor, you have a chance to create a positive impact in your mentee’s life. To help you navigate this, we’ve put together all the ingredients you’ll need to hit the ground running!
Open-Mindedness
Begin by asking questions to learn who your mentee is and where they want to be. Getting the detailed picture of their professional background, education, and life goals will help you in mapping out a plan to help them get there. Start by outlining 3-5 specific goals you can work on for the next couple of months. Use the SMART goals formula (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) model for an easy breakdown. You should identify your mentee’s strengths, plus additional focus areas to work on. We suggest keeping all this information organized, by having a Google document or sheet for both of you to keep track of progress.
Accountability
Next, you want to set expectations and communicate boundaries with your mentee. Developing this relationship is a time commitment! Setting boundaries is essential, so both the mentor and mentee can prioritize building this relationship while juggling all their other responsibilities. It’s also important to know how much time as a mentor you can dedicate to help your mentee reach their goals. You both are responsible for creating an open, trusting, and safe space. Setting time boundaries looks like communicating that weekends and holidays are days off. Or even establishing that there should be no text messages after 9 PM local time.
Empathy
As humans, we need safe spaces to express ourselves. Being a mentor, you have the ability to create that space to allow vulnerability in. The more we are able to open up the better we can establish trust. Holding space can mean you are able to listen to understand, and the mentee is able to voice their ideas without fear of judgment. It’s important for women of color to have this space because as we navigate issues such as turbulent families, reduced access to opportunities, and mental health challenges, it can feel like an uphill battle. We rarely feel we have safe healing spaces where we can let it all out. Remember to honor everyone’s experiences, along with sharing your own.
Support
Making connections for your mentee can be life-changing for them. From introducing them to an artist on Spotify, a new mindset, or connecting them with HR at their dream company, all of this can shape their career journey. As they say – your network is your net worth. You can also make introductions to your mentee from people in your network that can help them grow or learn more about a certain industry. Connecting them with other women of color helps broaden their perspective. A network of like-minded women uplifts us.
Guidance
As a mentor we know you want to swoop in and solve your mentee’s problems, however, your mentee may just want to feel heard, understood, or have their thoughts validated. If you feel you have something valuable to offer, then ask them if you can offer advice. However, it is more impactful to guide your mentee to seek their own solutions. Remember that guidance allows you to steer the conversation toward helping your mentee with a solution-based mindset, while advice offers specific solutions based on your own point of view. It’s up to you as a mentor which one is appropriate based on the situation.
Here are two possible scenarios in which you guide or give direct advice. If your mentee discusses with you how to negotiate their salary increase at their job, you could offer advice on how to have that conversation with their manager and HR. But, if the mentee is having an issue with their manager, then you could ask questions like “What do you think could help?” “Is there a different way you can approach this?” “What is your desired outcome?” In this case, your guidance will help them reach their own solution by pointing them in the right direction.
We hope this helped in starting a successful relationship with your mentee. Still unsure? Trust in yourself. We believe in you! Everyone has something to offer, no matter how big or small.
Written by: Norhan Ahmed
Edited by: Shaunah Margaret