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1. Get Ready for Mentoring

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22 mins

Why Become a Mentor: The Benefits for Mentors

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Why become a mentor? Many people assume mentoring only benefits the mentee. In fact, mentoring can be mutually beneficial, with the mentor gaining as much as their mentee.

Here are some reasons why you should become a mentor -

Personal Reflection: Mentoring gives you the rare chance to reflect on your own career, values and purpose, and sometimes to course correct.

Learn New Things: Mentoring forces you out of your comfort zone. Your mentee can share insights on new technology and trends, and you can learn new things and stay fresh. Make sure your mentee knows you are learning from them too.

Improve Your Interpersonal Skills: Mentoring requires developing your social skills, such as listening, feedback and questioning. Through mentoring, you will have a lot of opportunities to practice with them.

Give Back: Experience the satisfaction of making a difference in another person’s life and seeing them grow and learn. It’s the right thing to do and will make you feel good.

Strengthen Your Leadership Bona Fides: Mentor experience is required for many executive positions and will boost your career development.

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How to Help Your Mentee Set Goals

Realistic goals that can be measured and achieved will improve both party’s experience and satisfaction.

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xyz_mentor

4 mins

Here are some requirements a goal should meet -

1. Inspiring

Your mentee should be excited and enthusiastic about working towards these goals.
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2. Challenging, Yet Achievable

Your mentee will grow if there’s a bit of a stretch to the goal, provided it’s attainable.
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3. Measurable and Time-Based

Goals should be measurable so you both know when they are achieved. They also should have a time-frame.

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5 Steps For Goal Setting

Ideally, your mentee should have at least three primary goals. Here are steps to help your mentee set goals. Use the MentorCloud worksheet to document and track progress.

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STEP 1: Explore

You and your mentee should look at all the major friction areas of their work and personal life. Your mentee needs to identify at least three areas to focus on through their Mentoring Journey.

Here are some open-ended questions you can ask your mentee:

What do you want to accomplish in the upcoming months?
What are some things you would really like to learn or do?
What comes to mind in terms of personal or professional friction areas impacting you?
What else have you always dreamed of doing?
What would you like to see in your life that currently is not there?

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STEP 2: Identify

From these areas, you can help your mentee identify their goals. Eliminate goals that are not relevant to the mentoring journey
Encourage your mentee to record their goals using the MentorCloud worksheet.

Here are some questions to ask your mentee:

Does the goal meet the requirements of being motivating, challenging, achievable, and time-bound?
How will you measure success and know when you have achieved the goal?

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STEP 3: Needs Analysis

After the goals are recorded, help your mentee think about the steps to achieve them.

Questions to ask your mentee:

How do you see accomplishing this goal?
What will you need to achieve it?
What resources, knowledge, help, or collaboration will you need?

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STEP 4: Obstacles

What could prevent your mentee from achieving their goals, and how could it be overcome?

Questions to ask your mentee:

What do you fear could prevent you from reaching these goals?
How can I help you?

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STEP 5: Milestones And Action Plan

Milestones will help your Mentee measure their progress. Start by identifying a milestone and timeline with each goal. Ensure your mentee has a reasonable action plan for each goal.

Questions to ask your mentee:

What milestones will help you track each goal?
What help, or collaboration will you need?

Once your mentee has identified some goals, discuss it with them, and ensure it’s entered in the Goals & Tasks sections under Mentorship so you can refer back to it. If a goal seems too broad or unrealistic, help your mentee break these down into doable tasks and review their progress.

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