What makes mentoring effective?
I’ve had great mentors, average mentors and … mentors.
What they had in common is that they were unique!
What they also had in common was a drive and passion to be a mentor, to help someone else, to listen (even when they didn’t do it very well) and to find solutions (especially when they didn’t do it very well).
So having had a few, these would be my top tips:
1. Listen truly without prejudice or expectation.
2. Explain what you have heard and that this is only your interpretation.
3. Use open questions with no other motivation than to elicit better understanding and explore the issue in more detail.
4. Don’t expect to solve everything.
5. Check in and enjoy your successes.
Written by Rebecca, CEO of Your Own Place CIC
