Mentorship 101

What is mentorship?

• Mentoring is supporting and encouraging an individual or group to manage their own learning to maximize their potential

• Mentorship is providing advise and counselling

• Mentorship is having someone to have fun with

• Mentorship is having someone to provide financial assistance

What are the 4 phases of mentorship in the correct order?

• Completion, growth, engagement, purpose

• Growth, purpose, engagement, completion

• Purpose, engagement, growth, completion

• Engagement, purpose, growth, completion

Mentees need to:

• Rely on the mentor to come up with a career option

• Be clear about their career goals, needs and wants

• Stay quiet during mentorship sessions and listen to the mentor speak

• Be committed to expanding their capabilities and focus on achieving their goals

Mentees should do the following:

• Welcome experience: are enthusiastic about pursuing the widest range of professional experience

• Stay in your comfort zone: shy away from new learning experiences

• Take the initiative: recognize the need for mentoring and seek it out

• Avoid perfectionism: accept that you will make mistakes, and learn from them

Mentees should not:

• Avoid difficulties: do not expect mentors to solve all your problems for you

• Sidestep work: do not expect mentors to do work that you should be doing yourselves

• Bottle it up: do not avoid talking about problems, anxieties, or grief because it makes you seem less than perfect

• Take advantage: do not use friendship with a mentor as a tool to avoid work or escape consequences of your own activities

Mentors:

• Listen: function as a sounding board for problems and ideas

• Force: attempt to force a mentee in one direction

• Criticize constructively: point out areas that need improvement, always focusing on the mentee’s behaviour, never his/her character.

• Teach by example: serve as a model for adhering to the highest values in every area of life

A good mentor needs to be:

• A successful individual only

• A people person only

• Willing to reflect and share own experience to help mentee grow

• A person with lots of money

What does the acronym SMART in reference to goal setting mean?

• Spanish, maths, arts, reasoning, travels

• Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time bound

• Smart, moves, always, real, time

• Street, money, always, real, time

Which of the following is a SMART goal?

• I will find a new hobby by summer

• I will learn to make and fly kites

• Over the next three months, I will find a hobby I’m keen on by trying something new every weekend

• Learning a new hobby would be fun, I will try my hand at something in the future

Goals that can be achieved through mentorship:

• Improve your Communication Skills – you may learn how to communicate more effectively.

• Learn New Perspectives – by working with someone with more experience can help you to gain fresh perspectives on things and learn new ways of thinking.

• Higher Self-awareness - working out your goals with a mentor you look up to requires self-analysis of your strengths, weaknesses and values, as a result you become more self-aware.

• Increased Self-confidence – mentees feel supported in their decisions which positively impact their mental health and boost their self-confidence.