Last week, I had the privilege to join in a very interesting Twitter conversation about mentoring with two leadership experts – Dr Liane Davey and Martin Headley.
Liane is the bestselling author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, & Get Stuff Done, while Martin is a leadership couch based in the UK.
We talked about helping project managers become better motivators and how good mentors are hard to find.
I’ve been both mentored and a mentor and decided to put together a list of things that can help you become both a better mentor and a better mentee (is that even a word?).
Being a better mentor
- Being asked to be someone’s mentor is a privilege; treat it as such. If you don’t have enough spare time to do a good job, it is better to turn it down than do it half-heartedly
- Respond to your mentee in a timely manner
- Meet face to face as often as possible
- Be willing to share your failures, as well as your successes
- Be diplomatic when giving feedback
- Give plenty of notice if you wish to stop the relationship
Being a better mentee
- Keep in regular contact with your mentor, even if you’re not looking for advice. As they are likely to be busy, it’s good to build a connection outside of the mentoring relationship
- Make sure your requests for advice/guidance/help are within your mentor’s area of expertise. After all, there’s no point asking a project management mentor for guidance on legal issues
- Respond to your mentor in a timely manner
- Accept feedback gracefully, even if it isn’t what you want to hear
- Give plenty of notice if you wish to stop the relationship
A good mentoring relationship is like gold dust. When you have one that works, it can have a truly profound effect on both parties so is worth nurturing. For a mentor the reward is in the giving and passing on your hard-won knowledge. And for the mentee, a guiding hand and invaluable expert advice. Overall mentorships benefits society at large – after all, those receiving the guidance today, are set to become the leaders of the future.
