How do you challenge and support your mentee?

Begin by getting to know your mentee personally and professionally. Ask questions about their goals, aspirations, strengths, weaknesses, and areas where they seek improvement. Understanding their needs is the foundation of a successful mentoring relationship.

It’s also important to clarify what mentorship means. It can often be confused with coach, friend or leader. Defining the goals of the relationship early will ensure both parties contribute appropriately and feel fulfilled.

Mentoring is an intricate dance between guiding gently and pushing firmly. Understanding the individuality of every mentee is key. Here's how to strike the right balance: 1. Active Empathy: Recognize everyone's unique journey. Guide, don't judge. 2. The Exploration Approach: If mentees lack clarity, encourage self-assessment: "What tasks energize you? What would you like to improve?" 3. SWOT Framework: Guide mentees through identifying: A. Strengths: Reflect on past achievements. B. Weaknesses: See these as areas for growth. C. Opportunities: Recognize external and internal growth points. D. Threats: Consider external hindrances.

As part of my Personal Career Development I have started doing Mentorship with a couple of individuals from my company every year. Here are the most 3 important things I have learned: 1- Be a good listener is the most important part. Specially in the beginning where you are drafting the goals and roadmap with your mentee. 2- Baby steps rather than giant leaps. Focus on small directed improvements and developments. 3- Learn from your mentee. Never stop learning and there is always something you can add to your experience with every single mentee you have.

In my experience it starts with the mentees mindset I focus on beliefs and values. The first thing we look at is how they view themselves some questions to ask is: What would you need to believe in order to be successful or achieve that goal? What would you need to stop believing in order to feel happy and content? When do you feel most aligned with your values and at your happiest? If someone was to read your eulogy what would your legacy be? Before working with a mentee as a mentor you need to establish their “why” what is it that gets them out of bed in the morning. By understanding their beliefs and values you can support them in creating a plan for their goals.

Work with your mentee to establish (SMART) goals. These goals should be tailored to their individual needs and should serve as a roadmap for their development whether it is in a long run or short run, it will bring you there step by step to your success in your job based on my experience.

There are different interpretations of SMART goals. For some it can lose its effectiveness or be misunderstood. Others believe that SMART does not support well for long-term goals because it lacks flexibility, while others suggest that it might hamper creativity. I believe that SMART goals are also easy to use by anyone, anywhere, without the need for specialist tools or training.

My philosophy, as I apply them to the Solo to CEO, as a coach and mentor iss to offer constructive feedback that focuses on specific behaviors and actions. Challenge your mentee's thinking by asking thought-provoking questions. This fosters critical thinking and encourages them to explore diverse perspectives.

Instead of setting SMART goals, I share the concept of OKRs (objectives & key results) with the mentee. I lead them through an exercise where they take control of determining their major objectives for the mentee relationship. Then we together create key results they want to achieve and how I can help them achieve those key results. This method begins with total mentee ownership and moves into joint ownership between the mentee and me. Again, this goes back to relationship building which is the key first step.

Help Them Start Stretch Soar First, challenge mentees to view their current comfort zone as a new starting point. Next, help them stretch as they explore and expand towards clearly delineated new spaces. Last, keep challenging and supporting them as they soar and stand out in the most relevant new spaces, based on the agreed results framework.

Offer regular and honest feedback on your mentee's performance. Focus on both their strengths and areas for improvement. Ensure your feedback is specific, actionable, and delivered in a supportive manner. Encourage them to ask for feedback as well.

Honest and constructive feedback is possible only when mentor and mentee are regularly having conversations and mentoring relationship is moving in a good direction. Mentor needs to avoid generic statements. Instead specific situations or scenarios, whether they are praiseworthy or whether they need improvement, need to be brought into discussions. Feedback needs to be given regularly. Piling it up and sharing can result in sudden surprises and even shocks to mentees.

Leaders are often starved of honest constructive feedback for growth. Their bosses are either too busy or don't know how to give effective feedback. Their peers may fear competition or don't want to offend. Their direct reports fear repercussions and stay silent or sycophantic. After establishing trust that I want them to succeed, I share direct and honest feedback on how they're doing. More importantly, I also share the simple adjustments or next steps to make the improvements they want. When they implement those steps and feel the difference, that's when they are inspired to continue striving to be their best selves.

First things first: - We need to first understand them and to do so we need to know their belief systems - To know the belief system, we need to observe, and that too closely. - Now, we need to share how their belief system is limiting them and their growth - If they see what you see and that too clearly, then realisation happens - Next is to help them accept their reality/existing belief system - Finally they need to follow/execute small tasks daily to achieve their new belief system - Remember the new belief system has to have a vision for self and goals.

I feel that providing short, consistent and frequent feedback sessions are more effective. When you ask for feedback ensure that you are willing to accept and act on it. During this process you’re encouraging your employees to also be receptive to feedback

Help your mentee develop a habit of self-reflection. Encourage them to analyze their experiences, successes, and setbacks. Guide them in turning insights into actionable steps for growth.

In general, only a few people have tendency to do self reflection in a honest way. Mentor basically needs to make mentee understand that self reflection and introspection are highly effective. When mentee comes up his/her own observations and tries to define actions , mentor can offer guidance, suggestions based on his/her experience.

Once you and your mentee are comfortable with each other, have established a cadence and initial expectations, it's good to give each other homework and outline the upcoming discussions. We both look forward to our research on a topic or presentation that needs to be created and look at the activities, impacts, outcomes and most importantly, the why!

I incorporate questions that lead the mentee on a journey of self-reflection and assessment during each session. Doing so helps transform their mindset to one where they understand where their going and how they’ll get there. It’s beyond a growth mindset. It becomes a mindset that embraces the necessary work needed to become who they are intended to be.

Mentors need to share not just the best practices followed by them but lessons learnt as well. However, the tone with which such experiences are shared needs to be rational, neither in highly glorified way nor in a demotivating way. Adding a bit of humour can help while sharing anecdotes but sarcasm needs to be avoided.

As a mentor, you can share your own experiences and best practices. Provide examples of how you've tackled similar challenges or achieved your goals. Be a role model for the behaviors and skills you want your mentee to develop.

One thing I’ve found helpful is to model best practices to mentees. I do this by being transparent and letting them know of my missteps and what I learned. I share freely so they can learn from me.

Schedule regular meetings with your mentee to track progress and adjust goals as needed. The mentorship relationship should be dynamic and adaptable to changes in your mentee's needs and circumstances.

This one is one which varies with every mentee and changes depending on the roadmap we are working on together. It is unusual to have more than one session a week, more normal to be once a fortnight. As a mentor it is important to explain they need time to execute what you have agreed. The exceptions might be if they are being acquired, raising funding, implementing innovative technology where the timetable of what they need to execute is not under their control and involves external parties.

Tracking progress and providing feedback regularly is both important and necessary for the mentees growth. I use this as an opportunity to highlight accomplishments.

It is important to recognize a mismatch between mentor and mentee. It is a challenge that can be solved, and better sooner rather than later. If both the mentor and the mentee believe that a switch is desirable, the mentee can work with his or her team lead , department head , and even the current mentor to help locate a more appropriate mentor.

It's important to give your mentee the space and confidence to think. When they get stuck, facilitate thinking, let them come up with a solution, and then you can brainstorm and give input if required. This way, they are not handicapped. "I am there for you", is a magic statement that my mentees love. It gives them the courage to try out new things and face tough situations. They know I am there to help them every time they need me.

It’s important not to confuse coaching and mentoring - these are different disciplines and require different methodologies. This article seems to use the terms interchangeably.