What do you do if you want to mentor younger team members with your late career experience?

I guess an important point to ask yourself is “have you walked that walk that you expect your mentee to take”. As a mentor, it’s important to have had the journey that your mentee is taking so you can really add value to them.

师父 There's a depth to 师父 (Shifu), "mentor" in Chinese. It's about sharing your journey. As a coach (weaver of connections!), mentoring young minds fills me. It's not a lecture. A brilliant young data analyst felt overwhelmed by information overload. Remembering my struggles, I shared prioritization tips & connected her with helpful courses. It's a two-way street, empowering the next generation. These moments fill my cup more than any boardroom win.

Identifica el riesgo del adultocentrismo: 1. No eres superior ni un modelo acabado por el simple hecho de ser adulto. 2. Identifica las características, los valores e imaginarios sociales de la generación a la que pertenecen para abordarlos asertivamente. 3. Estás ahí para escuchar, para colaborar, para concertar, para comprender y para proponer. NO PARA MANDAR.

If you have a few decades of experience under your belt, you'll be pleasantly surprised how much you know and the value you can share with others. Think about where you failed and succeeded, both are so important in terms of learning, helping others and what you can take from it. Everyone has more than one interesting story/scenario/ experience in them, that someone else benefits from hearing and learning from you. Listening and asking questions of your Mentee is key to learn how best you can help them.

Does the company you work at have an internal Mentoring program? If yes, go join it as a Mentor. If not, there are many volunteer set ups that would welcome Mentors to join. The EMCC has a great definition that really talks to the mutual benefits - "Mentoring is a learning relationship, involving the sharing of skills, knowledge, and expertise between a mentor and mentee through developmental conversations, experience sharing, and role modelling. The relationship may cover a wide variety of contexts and is an inclusive two-way partnership for mutual learning that values differences".

In addition to what has already been defined - some key tips for any Mentor - be clear that any conversation is confidential between you and the Mentee, spend some time understanding what the Mentee would like to get out of the Mentoring, and agree some objectives. Be realistic about what Mentoring is and is not, and within that what you can help with and what you can't.

Not passing judgement is a big one to consider, as you want your Mentee to feel comfortable, and enable them to share and encourage them to be self aware. How do you do that? Ask open questions and listen. Be curious, ask why, and then share similar and relevant experiences that could eb helpful t=for them to know they are not alone.

The first thing you should do when mentoring a younger mentee is know where they are headed. To provide support and guidance you must have a clear understanding and direction in where Your mentee should go. This should be done by actively engaging with your mentee, building a relationship grounded in trust and mutual respect. Once there is a connection and a clear understanding of the path forward now you can guide, empower and instruct. You can also listen to learn about your mentee’s strength and weaknesses and learn how to improve them through creating actionable plans.

Recently, I was having a discussion with a senior executive who noted that they did not do social media, did not like to text, & was skeptical of the recent “trends” in management. Thought this was a great example of an individual who stopped evolving as a leader. One of the challenges we face as we move along in our career, is to keep current in all aspects of management, including how we relate to individuals that we may mentor. One of the keys in leadership development, is to pay attention to trends & to keep an open mind. I have known executives who refused to do email, text, use social media, etc. As we look at building teams & individuals, it’s key that we realize that we will always be an incomplete leader & need to learn.

Start by establishing a rapport and open communication. Then share your knowledge, insights and lessons learned from your career. Encourage new member to ask questions, provide constructive feedback and set clear goals together. It's also important to listen actively, be patient and understanding that everyone learns at their own pace.

I actually will associate with all the companies I have worked and offer free mentoring first. This will happen easily since I already have known faces at these places. And by doing this I will also be able to establish myself as a mentor and knock other companies and make money.

First is to make known I am available to mentor. Next is of course state what are my area of interests and expertise to mentor. When there a match of mentees, the next move will be to draw up a mentoring program to commit to mentoring schedule. The mentoring program is designed based on individual mentee’s needs and availability including the goals to achieve and the ground rules. The individual mentoring program needs to be disseminated to the mentees’ HoD and HR as it is a formalised organisation L&D initiative. The HoD of each mentee ought to initiate a dialog with the mentee to map out the commitment, the work redistribution, and progressive progress report as well as support needed to ensure success of the mentoring program.

This is a very useful situation as the learning will be 2-way. Your tons of experience will have enough stories and incidences to bind the young team. The young team will share theirideas, dreams, expectations, possibilities, etc. You can suger-coat it with your realistic world experience. This will develop a deadly combo of energy and experience. The learning, adjustment, changes, etc will be ongoing things. Keep in mind to set goals in the start and also set a review and upgrade mechanism for the same for no grudges for anyone. Periodic review will build trust and confidence. This will result in a better buying of your inputs with experience by the young team with energy and ideas. This is bound to rock for sure.