User Guides

How to Prepare for Your First Mentoring Meeting with Your Mentee

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Your first meeting is about getting to know each other and determining if it’s a good fit. Will you be able to guide your mentee and help them achieve their goals?

It’s worthwhile to spend some time preparing for your first meeting. Here are some useful tips to make it more productive -

1. Contact 

The mentee needs to reach out to you to set up the first meeting. Making your dates visible on MentorCloud will make scheduling easier. If you have synchronized your calendar, it’ll be easier to set up a date and time for your session without any scheduling conflicts. Ensure you have selected the correct time zones to avoid any confusion later.

Your meeting place, whether in-person or virtual, should be a quiet, safe space where you can both share openly. You could also select your preferred video conferencing tool.

2. Background

Read up on your mentee on MentorCloud. Your mentee might also have added a link to his/her LinkedIn profile for you to learn about their background and professional experience. 

What is their background and experience, achievements and interests? 

3. Agenda

Your mentee should send you an agenda a few days before your meeting. When you create a Session, there is space for you to note down an agenda for your meeting.

PREPARATION


1. Who are you?

What do you want to share about yourself? 
What are your strengths, values and achievements? 
Have you mentored before? 
What lessons did you learn from that experience?

2. Why are you a mentor?

What do you hope to get out of the relationship? 
What do you hope to learn?

3. What are your expectations?

Reflect on what you expect from your mentee and how you see your role in the mentoring relationship. 

4. Parameters?

How often do you expect to meet, how you want to communicate,  and any needed boundaries you want to establish? 

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Sample Agenda for a Regular Mentoring Meeting

This structured agenda is based on MentorCloud’s “best practices”.
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1 min

This structured agenda is based on MentorCloud’s “best practices” learned from working with many companies across the globe. It will help your mentoring meetings be productive and successful.

The recommended time is 60 minutes. 

1. Feedback And Update (10 minutes)

  • Reminder on the importance of confidentiality and respect.
  • Update on what has happened since the last meeting. Refer to Notes from last meeting.
  • Feedback from the mentee and mentor on their progress regarding Tasks, Goals and  the action plan.

2. Discussion (40 minutes)

  • Discussion points to be presented by the mentee.
  • Questions asked by mentors to clarify the issues or challenges.
  • Guided discussion on how to address challenges. 
  • Options to address challenges going forward.
  • Mentor can share experience or advice if the mentee requests it.

3. Close (10 minutes)

  • New action plan for mentees.
  • Update Goals, Tasks and add any new Notes
  • New action points for mentors.
  • Preparation for the next meeting: venue, date and time?

When you create a Session, there is an option for your to write down an Agenda. It is best to plan ahead and have a few points of discussion written down for the next meeting.