What Is A Mentor Relationship?

The answer to the question What is a mentor relationship? varies from one mentor to another. It is a great question to ask if you’re considering becoming a mentor to a young professional.

In fact, there are many reasons to consider this question. While many tenured business professionals have a wellspring of knowledge to share, they often don’t think about what the mentoring relationship will look like. How will you interact with someone who comes from a different generation, ethnicity or religion and may have different values than you? What kind of interpersonal skills will you need to bring to the table to make the mentoring relationship successful? How will you discuss your professional and managerial triumphs and downfalls? How will you encourage your mentee to learn?

Assessing Your Skills to Help You Grow as a Mentor

There are multiple assessments available that can help you evaluate your mentoring skills. While some can be industry specific, they all offer insights into the necessary characteristics to be a mentor. For instance, many mentoring assessments list categories such as listening skills, communication skills, personal competence, professional knowledge and skills, management knowledge and skills, and problem-solving skills.

These skills can be further detailed. For instance, seasoned professionals often need the following skills when guiding a younger professional:

• Active listening
• The ability to offer trust
• The capacity to offer constructive feedback
• The ability to work with the mentee to develop strategies to meet goals
• The capacity to align your expectations with the mentee’s
• The capacity to motivate your mentee
• The ability to boost the mentee’s confidence
• The ability to encourage creativity
• The ability to encourage strategic thinking
• The capacity to foster professional independence

 

Becoming a Better Mentor

What is a mentor to do to develop these skills that will help them guide a mentee? The first step is to do a self-analysis. Think carefully about how you interact with others, whether family members, community members or coworkers. What feedback have you previously received from your employees? What areas have been addressed in your annual evaluation?

Then think about taking the next steps to grow your skills through going to a seminar, reading, watching videos or studying what other successful leaders do. You also might want to talk to your company’s HR department to see what resources are available to help you.

The mentoring relationship is a great opportunity to build your own skill set as well as that of a young professional. Use this time to develop the characteristics of a wise sage so that you can listen and guide young professionals. By doing so, your knowledge and advice will continually be eagerly sought after by the next generations of business leaders.