🌿 Mentorship basics
🌿 Mentorship basics
I hope you don’t expect an easy answer on what makes one a good mentor, as it truly depends on each individual case, and that unique combination of mentor and mentee at that specific point in their careers.
So below are just some key points I defined for myself as a basic check list, to make sure I don’t miss anything important.
Be reasonable
On the one hand, it's a process that involves two parties. But on the other hand, as opposed to, for example, just working together on a project, mentor and mentee have a completely different vision and sense of what is happening.
For mentor, in order to design a successful development plan, it's always important to have a good understanding of mentee’s motivations and apprehensions, as well as strengths and weaknesses, that could be defined through many different exercises. Otherwise, there is always a chance a mentee can get too stressed, overwhelmed, demotivated, or just adopt unhelpful habits.
Be attentive
It's important to not only discuss what mentee is so excited to tell about, but also what they're trying to avoid.
Sometimes, mentee can just get easily carried away with that new shiny tool they finally got to play with, completely forgetting about the actual goals they were supposed to achieve.
So do your part of the homework! Prepare to the next call, make sure there is an agenda in place and you don’t miss anything important. Follow-up on the progress on previous action items and set some new ones — there is always something to improve!
Be supportive
Everyone should learn how to deal with failures or simply too stressful situations. And the role of mentor is not to solve them for mentee, but to explain how this could be solved and support if needed.
It can be tempting sometimes to just act on something as it's just quicker to do than to explain, but in the long-term it's not helpful.
Be there
Often, the most important what you can do is to just be available when you are needed.
Usually, the higher you go up a career ladder, the busier you get. But therefore it's even more important to make sure your mentee knows how to reach you, and is able to get answers and support timely. It's often a no-brainer for you, but can unblock and safe lots of time for your less experienced team member.
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