Participating in a mentoring relationship is a rewarding experience for both parties. As a current mentee at work, and someone who has served as a mentor for high school, college, and graduate students respectively, I am providing general tips that you can consider as a mentee.
You will learn about the benefits of having a mentor and some valuable insights to cultivate that professional relationship with your mentor. You should feel well-equipped to strengthen your mentoring relationship.
This post is all about the mentoring relationship that you, as a mentee, would want to build to develop your professional network.
Benefits of Having a Mentor ✅
1. Your cheerleader.
Your mentor is there to provide you with support and is someone who uplifts you. Who wouldn’t want a personal cheerleader rooting for you as you navigate the next steps of your career?
2. Your Sounding Board.
When you meet with your mentor, you will share experiences that you have been going through, which includes your recent wins, battles, and struggles. You will share thoughts and ideas of what steps you might want to take next and provide the reasons why. Your mentor can serve as that sounding board for you to help you figure out your next trajectory.
3. Your Accountability Partner.
During the conversations that you have with your mentor, you might come up with a few key action steps that you can do before your next scheduled call with them. When life happens and other priorities come up, you will figure out time during the week to take those action steps that you said you would attempt to do.
TIps for Success 🙌
1. Come Prepared.
Leverage the time that you have with your mentor. Our mentors have lives, too, with many other priorities to juggle besides connecting with you. You want to show them why they should invest their time, effort, and resources in you. Based on previous conversations that you might have already had with your mentor, you can reflect on the goals that you set in the beginning and follow-up with your mentor on how you have been progressing.
2. Practice Active Listening.
It is highly recommended that not only you ask good open-ended questions, but you also actively listen to your mentor during the call. Remember, this is a two-way conversation. Ways in which you can show you are actively listening include: removing anything during the call that can serve as distractions (e.g., turning your phone on silent), making eye contact, not interrupting them while they speak, paragraphing what they have said and asking them if you are on the same page, and asking them to clarify a point that they have made.
3. Provide Acts of Service.
Show that you thought of them in some way. Something that my mentor has done for me that I thought was incredibly thoughtful is providing me with a few books on leadership and on workplace matters, which is a kind gesture that I do not take for granted. Most recently during my vacation, I came back with a small souvenir for them to show that I am grateful for the time that they provided me with and that I value the relationship. Small gestures like that can go a long way.
FInal Thoughts 💭
This post was all about developing that mentoring relationship that you have with your mentor. There are many benefits to having a mentor and tips to make this a successful relationship for the both of you. My hope is that this serves as one of the many resources that are out there to help put perspective on cultivating that relationship, and earning your mentor’s trust and respect.