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4. Drive Active Relationships

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22 mins

How to Prepare for Your Mentoring Meeting as a Mentor

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Your mentee is responsible for most of the preparation for their mentoring meeting; however, here are some things you can do to make it more productive -
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1. Be in the right frame-of-mind:

Take time before your meeting to reflect on your mentee’s progress-to-date. Is the relationship working as expected?
Be fully present. Eliminate distractions (especially your phone!).

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2. Review the agenda and action plan:

Your mentee should have sent you an agenda before your meeting. It should include a timeline, an update from your last meeting, and input needed from you. Be prepared to suggest any needed changes to the agenda.
Review the action plan and tasks set from your last meeting and ask for an update at the beginning of your session.

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3. Goals:

Review the stated goals and milestones from your initial meeting and reflect on your mentee’s progress-to-date.

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4. Your Action Items:

Have you done your action items from the last meeting? Be prepared to provide an update.

Your mentee should be setting the agenda and sending an invite before each meeting. Be prepared to help them at first if necessary. Ensure you have synchronized your calendar so you can set up a date, time, topic and set an agenda for your session. You can also choose your preferred video conferencing platform so that you don’t have to set up new meetings every time you schedule a mentoring session.

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How to Ask Productive Questions

Questioning is a key skill in mentoring.

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2 mins

Questioning is a key skill in mentoring. By understanding how to ask the right questions, you can unlock your mentee’s thinking and generate valuable insights.

Closed and open-ended questions
Use both closed and open-ended questions in your mentoring conversations.

1. Closed-ended questions:

Can be answered by a few words and provide information about facts. Use them when you need clarification or a specific answer. They usually begin with “Who,” “Where,” and “When,” and “How much?”.

Examples:

“Who was part of the conversation?”
“Where did you work previously?”
“When did you join the company?”
“How much was your quota?”

2. Open-ended questions:

Open-ended questions cannot be answered with one word, or a simple “Yes” or “No”. Typically, they require more thought and can lead to deeper thinking and insights. Open-ended questions often begin with “What”, “What if”,“How?” and “Why”.

Examples:

“What motivates you?”
“What accomplishments are you proud of?”
“What if you had an unlimited budget for this project, how would you spend it?”
“How will you go about motivating your team?”.

Tip: Asking questions can be stressful for some new mentors. Remember, it’s more important to actively listen than to think about what question to ask next. After fully listening, reflecting back and summarizing, the right question will come to you.

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