#007 - How To Be A Better (Paid) Mentor

I spend around 20% of my time being a mentor. I looked back across my last five years of projects and I hadn't fully recognised how consistent a presence this part of my work has been. I've mentored for people such as The Space, Arts Council, BBC, Create Central, Creative East, and Creative UK in that time, as well as individuals and organisations. Thinking about it, I really enjoy helping people develop their businesses, creative practices, and projects across XR, innovation, and beyond.

So, in a similar fashion to my previous piece on being an embedded specialist, I thought it was about time I looked into how and why I mentor and document some of my observations garnered over hundreds of sessions with all sorts of folk.

A Quick Definition

Mentoring comes in many different forms, but ultimately being a mentor boils down to listening, giving advice, and helping people find their path forwards. When you do it a lot you get into a groove of how to be an active listener, how to ask the right questions, and the best ways to be supportive.

I deliberated on whether to include (paid) in the title of this piece, but decided that being a professional mentor who is paid to support a business or individual is different and distinct to mentoring someone informally at work, or supporting your peers, although there is likely some crossover. My thoughts here are from the perspective of a paid role, there to provide structured mentoring.

Observation 1 - The Reality Reset

When you start mentoring someone, particularly if they are on a funded scheme or are driving towards investment, the mentee is almost always still in pitch mode.

Pitch mode means that when I introduce myself and ask my opening question about their journey so far, I often get the big sales pitch. It's the version of their journey that got them the funding, or is being honed for investors, or is primed for their marketing and outreach. It's a polished story with ambitious aims that projects confidence.

Which is good. But makes mentoring quite difficult. So my first task is usually to do a big (but careful) reset to reality. This is intended to uncover people's real situations, bring the story back down to earth, and attempt to ground the conversation in challenges and practical solutions.

The benefit of doing this is the mentoring can be more practical and ultimately more useful. If you are trying to advise a sales pitch where to go next, the pitch almost always knows best. But if you can strip that away and talk about real problems, realistic goals, and practical next steps it's better for everyone. Thankfully, in most cases this step works and we get to the good stuff quickly.

How do you do it? I ask open, grounding questions. Such as: "What is you current main driver of revenue?", What do you need to change in the immediate short term?", "What are your current day-to-day blockers?", or words to that effect. Try to uncover some real here-and-now challenges and work out what's going on behind the pitch. Then you can start to find the best areas for advice to hone in on.

Observation 2 - Don't Just Listen

It would be easy to be in listening mode for the majority of mentoring sessions. But listening alone isn't incredibly useful in the long term. It definitely needs to happen. And it should be part of allowing the mentee to express themselves and go on a journey of self-discovery.

But I've found a much more impactful way of mentoring is to share more of myself in the sessions than you would expect. Bringing out stories, case studies, references, and personal recollections to the mentee's challenges and stories makes me more of an active participant in the session and also draws out better insights and connections in my opinion.

I also get active with ideas. I pitch possible routes forward and play devil’s advocate all the time. The mentee’s reaction to those provocations will either be positive and helpful, or teach you something about your mentee to consider going forward. By challenging existing assumptions you open new areas of conversation and can dive deeper into new ways of thinking. It would be very easy not to.

Observation 3 - Don't Take Notes

Well, you should take notes. But you shouldn't look like you are taking notes. You should be listening and thinking. I always find myself losing the connection if I have to stop to write or type notes while someone is talking and it also puts the mentee off their stride.

So a more recent addition to my mentoring approach is to use an AI notetaker. I use Fireflies which sits in on your call and automatically transcribes the conversation. It attributes everything to each speaker, it provides a time-stamped, searchable transcription, it records the audio, and it provides a top-level summary of key point and actions.

It's been a game-changer for paying more attention to the conversation, being more spontaneous in my thinking, and being able to provide accurate and useful notes to the mentee afterwards. Not to mention it saves me a ton of time when reporting and documenting sessions. If you don't have something like this, recording the session on your phone is the next best option.

Observation 4 - Assume Everyone's Success

I go into every mentoring sessions with the assumption that the person opposite me will succeed.

In my wider work I could be accused of being a pragmatist or at worst a pessimist (those producer instincts don't die easily!). But when I'm mentoring, I adopt the position that the mentee can follow through and win.

This helps enormously when giving advice because there's no point speculating on success in these sessions. The point is to help someone along on their journey, help them see new routes forward, and open their eyes to different approaches through non-judgmental listening and questioning.

Obviously, there are moments you have to cast some doubt on a plan. I often try to steer people away from solutions built on hope alone as it's often not realistic or replicable. But equally, I would never shoot someone down for following through on their passion or giving it a good go. With this mindset you can focus on providing practical first steps rather than designing a highly ambitious goal with no steps to get there, or being a mindless cheerleader.

Observation 5 - Keep It Simple

Mentees often have many ideas in play at once. They have so many possible ways to approach their challenges and often they are doing it alone in those early stages.

To help, I try to guide each mentee to identify which idea they can move the dial on first. By concentrating on just that slice initially, you can get to some practical takeaways rather than constantly trying to untangle a giant knot of thoughts and ambitions.

Breaking it down into chunks and following a structured set of questions to map out the challenge helps the sessions feel useful and supports the mentee to unclutter their thinking and plan more effectively.

Most of the time, this step alone is what mentees on support programmes really need. They have the power to move their ideas forward. Just sometimes they need an external view to help them see it all in a new light.

Get Mentoring

That's one of the reasons I like mentoring. Each chat is a problem to wrestle with. A little puzzle to solve live in the room. If at the end I've helped the mentee see the next few steps on the board, then it's a job well done.

I can definitely recommend mentoring as a great addition to your work if you have the capacity. It's flexible, rewarding, and helps you learn about yourself and lots of new areas you haven't encountered before. Lean into your experience, don't expect to have all the answers, and develop techniques to help people along the way. Hopefully some of these observations help you get into it.

Obligatory call to action: If you'd like to work with me as a mentor on your programme or project, capacity is pretty limited until next year but you know where I am.

Until next time, creative innovators.

About Me

I’m Ian Ravenscroft. I am founder of Green Raven. I help cultural and commercial organisations to create innovatively and innovate creatively. I apply new and emerging technologies to creative ideas to engage your audiences. I’m often an advisor, mentor, consultant, or producer, helping you make smarter decisions, informed by experience and cross-sector knowledge. Visit my website to see who I’ve helped across arts and beyond.