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4. Drive Active Relationships

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22 mins

What to Do in a Mentoring Meeting as a Mentor

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Having a structure can help you and your mentee make your time more productive. The format can be adapted to suit your requirements so there’s a natural flow.
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1. Feedback And Update

Remind your mentee about confidentiality as well as any ground rules.

Talk to your mentee about:

Feedback on their progress on the action plan.
An update on what has happened in their work or personal life since you last met.

Progress on what you committed to do since the last meeting.

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2. Discussion

This is where you will spend the bulk of your time. Ask your mentee to go through the discussion points on their agenda, and identify the issues they want to discuss.
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Example of prompting questions:

“What would be most useful for you to discuss today?”

“What would you like this session to focus on?”

Ask questions to clarify the issues your mentee has presented; be sure you fully understand before moving on.

Guide your mentee to think about their issue more thoroughly. Ask open-ended questions to encourage them to think more deeply.
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Example of prompting questions:

“What options have you considered?”

“What do you see as the pros and cons of each?”

You can then share some of your experiences and advice, if it's requested.

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3. Close

Action Plan - Ask your mentee to put together an action plan of what they would like to work on before the next meeting. If needed, help them to think through options. Make a note of anything you could provide, such as an article or video, to help them. Make sure you send them to your mentee.

Discuss and schedule your next meeting. Set up a recurring meeting if you mutually agree on a time that works for both of you. Finally, sincerely thank your mentee for their hard work.

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Up Next

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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