“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” In this episode, I share my thoughts on how a good mentor hopes you move on, but a great mentor knows you will. If you are fortunate enough to serve in a mentorship position, listen to my advice on what you need to do to ensure you elevate leaders to higher positions from where you met them.
In this episode, I cover three simple tips to for anyone fortunate enough to be a mentor:
- Understand your mentee’s goals and develop a plan to achieve them – Take the time to sit down with your mentee and actually draw a plan with a timeline for measurable goals. This will help the mentee understand where they are currently now and what they need to do get where they want to be.
- Be brutally honest – Everyone loves hearing how they perform well, but hearing how to they can do better is arguably more valuable in a mentor/mentee relationship. If mistakes or weaknesses aren’t acknowledged by the mentor, the mentee will miss out on a growth opportunity. It is the mentor’s responsibility to be honest with their mentee so a plan of action can be developed to become even better than before.
- Let them fail, because that’s how they will learn – If a mentor can find an opportunity for a mentee to shine, it is important for them to earn the full credit for what that work entails, good or bad. As long as the mistake or failure can be recoverable (the mentor must determine this), the mentee can gain invaluable experience to help them build confidence in future efforts because they have seen this road before.
