1. Commit time. Share your most limited resource.
2. Show empathy. Demonstrate a genuine
interest in the mentee as an individual. Work to feel the mentee's
concerns and to understand his or her hopes and aspirations.
3. Listen actively. Eliminate
distractions to focus your full attention on the person you're
mentoring. Ask questions to make sure you understand what he or she
is saying, probe for insight on the mentee's situation and help the
mentee clarify his or her own thinking.
4. Serve as advocate. Represent your
mentee to others, argue on his or her behalf and defend his or her
efforts.
5. Express positive expectations.
Continually encourage your mentee. Remind the mentee of his or her
abilities, potential and purpose. Help the mentee recognize his or
her future prospects.
6. Build trust. Prove trustworthy, and
thus build trust, by maintaining confidentiality, providing candid
feedback and honoring commitments you make, like meeting times.
7. Engage in discussion. Serve as a
sounding board for the mentee. Question the mentee's assumptions so
as to stretch his or her thinking, ask questions that invite
reflection and continually ask what he or she is learning. Also,
provide candid and constructive feedback that helps the mentee better
assess his or her own strengths and weaknesses.
8. Debrief teachable moments. Look for
those rare opportunities that provide powerful new insights, then
help the mentee to fully assess and analyze those insights. Teachable
moments may occur spontaneously, and the observant mentor makes the
most of them when they happen.
9. Serve as a model. Your very
position, role or status serves as a powerful example of what may be
possible for others. The presence of the mentor thus gives proof that
the journey can be made. The mentor as role model provides a
realizable goal for the mentee.
10. Provide a mirror. Your own
experience serves to illustrate what the mentee seeks to accomplish.
Be worthy of imitation. Looking at you, the mentee should see
something of himself or herself in the reflection.
11. Chart a course. Play a key role in
helping the menteee look ahead and chart his or her own course in
life. By helping people understand and appreciate their own unique
gifts, you assist them in overcoming obstacles and taking advantage
of opportunities.