20 Tips To Be A Good Mentor

 A Mentor is a trusted counselor or guide. She has the ability to lead, inspire, and motivate her mentee by enhancing the mentee’s awareness of and perspective on her development plan. In this blog post, we have summarized the qualities and skills of a good mentor. 

Remember, your mentee is excited about this journey. She is anxious and inspired at the same time. She has a goal, decided to invest in her self-development, and prioritized her needs. Enjoy this special journey! 

Tips To Be A Good Mentor

1. Be committed to this new relationship 
2. Be an active listener! 
3. Guide and help her put her ideas into action 
4. Find constructive ways to challenge your mentee 
5. Share similar experiences so your mentee understands that her problem is not unique 
6. Use open-ended questions to encourage the mentee to think creatively and form her own conclusions
7. Let mentees know that there are no shortcuts 
8. This is valuable time for the mentees. Please focus on their business, as you are the expert in that field 
9. Respect your mentee, her values & beliefs 
10. Get her focus on the things that need to be done 
11. Encourage her by pointing out her skills 
12. Be consistent, but flexible.
13. Expect changes in plans 
14. Always do follow-ups 
15. Foster a caring and supportive relationship. Showing that you care will boost confidence
16. It is a common remark that mentors learn from mentees a great deal 
17. Focus on developing the mentee professionally and personally 
18. Support and facilitate. You do not have all the answers; you are a ‘learning facilitator’
19. Explain your personal work style and preferences 
20. Remind your mentee to prepare a written outline or an agenda for the meeting After the meeting take notes of what was discussed and what progress has been made

How Do You Shine As A Mentor? Are You:

• Eager and open to developing themselves and others 
• Highly skilled in communication and employee management
• Makes time and is reachable for their mentee in spite of their workload 
• Extensive experience and knowledge of her profession 
• Role model with their professional career, management, and leadership skills

Tips: What Not To Do As a Mentor 

• Expect your mentee to lead every meeting or suggest activity 
• Make your mentee learn by trial 
• Give random advice or criticism 
• Expect a clone of yourself 
• Talk negatively about your mentee to others 
• Lecture 
• Share personal problems unless it is related to the current disposition 
• Lend money 
• Assume the role of the problem solver 
• Impose your vision 
• Attempt to force your mentee in one direction 
• Forget she knows her business better than anyone else

We hope these pointers were helpful for you. Remember, you have your own style and way to share your experiences. And you rock in doing so! 

If you would like to read up on more suggestions and pointers, you can read our MentorWIN Program Guide.   Happy Reading! 

You can join the TurkishWIN Mentoring program by joining us as a member. Our membership application is online at this link. Our dues are annual and you can join us any time based on a 12-month  rolling subscription. We cannot wait to meet you!