Mentoring – Business and Personal
Mentoring is most often defined as a professional relationship in which an experienced person (the mentor) supports and encourages people (the mentee/s) to develop specific skills and knowledge that will maximise their business potential and improve their performance.
It can also be a meeting of minds to bounce ideas and gain greater vision by sharing skills, knowledge and experience. Mentoring for personal improvement will follow a similar format, most importantly will be the establishing of required outcomes at the beginning of any process to ensure success.
It's important to make sure your values align with the person you are looking toward as a potential mentor. Whilst disruptive conversation can boost change it can also create an atmosphere of conflict which may hamper your growth as part of this relationship.
How? What? When? Establishing appropriate boundaries as to how when and where your communication will take place will avoid unnecessary difficulties into the relationship.
Feeling safe with sharing of information will be crucial to a successful mentoring relationship. It is incumbent on both the mentor and the mentee to establish boundaries around topics and to what level individuals are happy to share information.
Managing others' expectations is a key skill in any personal or professional relationship.
When a mentor and mentee find commonalities of thinking it can prove to be a learning development opportunity for both. Consider who is the right person for you to work with. What background knowledge would you like them to have and how best you learn from others.