Mentoring is a rewarding and challenging role that requires you to balance providing guidance and giving your mentee room to grow. You want to help your mentee achieve their goals, but you also want to avoid being too directive or overbearing. How can you find the right balance? Here are some tips to help you.
The first step to balance guidance and growth is to assess your mentee's needs and expectations. What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their short-term and long-term objectives? What are their preferred learning styles and feedback methods? By asking these questions, you can tailor your mentoring approach to suit your mentee's needs and avoid imposing your own agenda or assumptions.
Mentorship is not about forcing your thought process on a mentee. A Mentor is supposed to simply encourage and facilitate a mentee's thought process and provide navigation whenever necessary.
In my experience, balancing guidance and allowing your mentee to grow is a delicate art. To achieve that balance, I typically do some or all of the following: 1. Encourage my mentees to think critically and problem-solve by asking open-ended questions. This prompts them to explore options and come to their conclusions. 2. Share my own experiences and insights, but then allow them to adapt the insights or lessons to their unique situation. 3. Challenge them to stretch their abilities and step out of their comfort zones.
Balancing guidance while allowing your mentee room to grow involves a delicate approach that combines support and autonomy. It's important to offer advice, share experiences, and provide resources to help them navigate challenges. However, fostering independence means encouraging them to make decisions, allowing for mistakes, and then discussing lessons learned. Act as a supportive resource, offering feedback and guidance, but empower your mentee to take ownership of their growth and development by respecting their choices and individual journey.
Need identification is the foundation pillar of any mentorship program! It helps in setting clear objectives for each mentee & leads to a much higher engagement.
The second step to balance guidance and growth is to set clear and realistic goals with your mentee. Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). They should also be aligned with your mentee's interests, values, and aspirations. By setting goals, you can help your mentee focus on their priorities, track their progress, and celebrate their achievements.
When looking at goals you have to separate from ‘need’ and ‘want’. The reason for this is that the ‘need’ is where you will find the realistic goals that can be attained. The ‘want’ is what you aspire to have, however have yet to complete what is needed. When I interact with my mentees I ask the following: 1. What do you need? 2. What tools do you believe you must have to fulfill that need? 3. Is there a timeframe required to meet this need? The need is revisited as it pushes the ownership piece of the desire of the mentee. It is always a good practice to re-engage the mentee so that they can hear their responses echo back. This echo technique also allows them to buy into the mentor-mentee partnership.
When mentees know where they are going, they are much more engaged & do not quit easily. Setting SMART goals of the mentorship program helps the community move faster & get richer in wisdom.
The third step to balance guidance and growth is to use the Socratic method of questioning and dialogue. This means asking open-ended questions that encourage your mentee to think critically, creatively, and independently. For example, you can ask "What do you think are the main challenges in this situation?" or "How would you approach this problem differently?" or "What are the pros and cons of this option?" By using the Socratic method, you can help your mentee develop their own insights, solutions, and perspectives.
Mentors are different from teachers. A teacher follows a chapter centric approach - Either right or wrong. A mentor has to guide. This means the discussions should be open ended where mentors asks relevant questions, actively listens without judgement & allows the mentee to move forward with conviction.
Mentors are different from teachers. A teacher follows a chapter centric approach - Either right or wrong. A mentor has to guide. This means the discussions should be open ended where mentors asks relevant questions, actively listens without judgement & allows the mentee to move forward with conviction.
The fourth step to balance guidance and growth is to provide constructive feedback to your mentee. Feedback should be timely, specific, balanced, and actionable. It should highlight what your mentee did well, what they can improve, and how they can do it. It should also be respectful, supportive, and empathetic. By providing constructive feedback, you can help your mentee learn from their mistakes, overcome their challenges, and enhance their performance.
Constructive feedback is where the Mentor should distance him/herself from dictating solutions and be mindful of the aspect that the mentee happens to be the director of change and not vice versa. As such, it would be wise to say that the essence of providing feedback has more to do with providing the needed sense of direction per se.
The fifth step to balance guidance and growth is to share your experiences and resources with your mentee. Experiences can include your own successes and failures, lessons learned, best practices, and tips. Resources can include books, articles, podcasts, videos, courses, tools, and networks. By sharing your experiences and resources, you can help your mentee gain valuable knowledge, skills, and connections.
The sixth and final step to balance guidance and growth is to encourage self-reflection and action from your mentee. Self-reflection is the process of examining one's own thoughts, feelings, actions, and outcomes. Action is the process of applying one's learning to new situations and opportunities. By encouraging self-reflection and action, you can help your mentee become more self-aware, self-reliant, and self-motivated.