Are you a mentor or have you ever been mentored? If you answered yes, I wonder how it works / worked for you. I find there’s always high anticipation and energy around mentoring. It always comes from a hope or fear that someone wants to get the right mentor or mentee. It’s like a mentoring partnership is a click your finger wish and it will be perfect. Today, as we’ve just matched 9 partnerships for the Beef Connections Leadership Mentoring Program, and excitement and anticipation is justifiably high, I want to share that although this isn’t a guarantee of a Perfect Match, there are steps to building an effective relationship, processes, timelines, questions to ask and shared expectations to be established. From this the magic happens.
In today’s Newsy, let’s take some time to more fully understand the traits that contribute to being a great mentor / mentee. Knowing yourself. This means being self aware. Being aware of your strengths and how you show up in a relationship, conversation, a challenge and when under pressure or when asked to think strategically. Here are some of the key traits that effective mentors and mentees bring to the mentoring relationship.
| Traits of an Effective Mentor | Traits of an Effective Mentee |
| Passionate | Proactive |
| Accessible | Prepared |
| Knowledgeable | Open – minded |
| Strong interpersonal skills | Respectful |
| Active / deep listening | Committed |
| Empathy | Transparent |
| Ability to provide feedback | Honest |
| Honest | Grateful |
| Integrity | Action oriented |
You can use this list is a Checklist for yourself and then the mentee or mentor you’re working with. Share it and use it for discussion. These traits will give you a jumpstart to your mentoring partnership.
“Mentoring should be a fulfilling relationship between somebody with more experience and somebody with less, with the goal of helping both individuals become elevated versions of themselves”
Janice Omadeke
And now here are some tips to kickstart and maintain your effective mentoring partnership.
1. Get to Know Each Other. Remind yourself to take time to connect and get to know each other. Strong mentoring relationships need strong foundations.
2. Buy In with Boundaries. Be clear that this is a mentoring relationship. It’s not a friendship or mateship, it’s a coming together to work on a shared vision and develop knowledge and skills along the way relationship.
3. Meet with Purpose. There’s no room for friendly have a chats ONLY in mentoring. Always set a purpose and develop shared purpose for your mentoring sessions. Even if this happens in the first 5 mins of the mentoring session, it’s super important that you commence with a shared purpose for your meeting. My top tip would be to not continue until you have this!
4. Maintain a Productive Process. Establish and maintain processes across your mentoring partnership and sessions. These should include templates, session timelines etc
5. Maintain Positive Energy. It’s likely things might go off track at some stage in the partnership. Maintain your energy during this time and build in a session to reset or re-goal so you both come back on board with shared expectations
Over to You
Do any of these resonate for you? Could any be helpful in your mentoring relationships today?
