Mentoring provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, best practice and open discussion. The ACT’s Mentoring Scheme provides an opportunity for more experienced members to help other members. It provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, best practice and open discussion. To find out more about the scheme visit treasurers.org/mentoring
The mentoring scheme provides useful documents and information about how to get the best out of your mentoring relationship.
The role of the mentor
The role of a mentor is to contribute towards your mentee’s career aspirations through careful guidance and support. The mentor uses their experience, expertise, guidance and wisdom to prepare their mentees for a better future.
No-one can become an inspirational mentor in just a day, it comes with experience. It is a life skill that can be learnt, developed and nurtured over a period of time. It’s a continuous learning curve where the mentor grows and learns alongside their mentee.
Five proven tips that can effectively enhance your mentoring skills:
1. Be Yourself
Be yourself and be honest. Share your success stories, but don’t forget to mention about the failures. Mistakes are often the biggest lessons that we get to learn in life. The way you dealt with failures might help your mentee to gain insight about how to avoid the same failures and how to cope with failures.
Letting them know about your mistakes will also enhance your credibility with them.
2. Listen
A good mentor is an active, effective, focused and sensitive listener. Putting yourself in the shoes of the mentee is vital for successful mentoring relationships. You need to be genuinely interested in your mentee as an individual. You must know their dreams and goals, so that you can guide them appropriately towards the success route. It is important to listen with patience. Use open-ended probing questions and make sure you listen to their thoughts.
3. Set Realistic Expectations
It is the responsibility of the mentor to help mentees set realistic expectations according to their potential and skills. Dreaming big is not a bad thing, but make your mentee understand that achieving a big dream is a step-by-step process. Make them aware of the professional challenges they might encounter and suggest ideas for overcoming them.
In some cases you may want to challenge your mentee and jointly set a “stretch-goal” that takes them out of their comfort zone.
4. Responsible, Reasonable and Respectful
The values of trust and respect are essential for an effective mentoring relationship. Always be patient and polite, even if your mentee seems to be learning at a slower rate than you would expect. By being reasonable and transparent in your approach your mentee will build trust and feel free to share their thoughts and concerns.
5. Provide Constructive Feedback
Feedback plays a key role in a healthy mentor-mentee relationship. Getting a good balance of praise and constructive criticism is critical.
Celebrate milestones and accomplishments together. Point out mistakes in a constructive manner. Try to create a healthy environment that promotes effective discussions and brainstorming.
A mentor’s role is to find out positives even from the failures. Try to help your mentee to stay optimistic, whatever the situation.
Mentoring can change lives and careers. Done the right way, it can be the stepping-stone to a successful future.
