How to Set Mentoring Goals

Taking on a mentor role is an exciting and rewarding responsibility, but figuring out how to set mentoring goals can be a head-scratcher for new mentees. Setting the right objectives is vital for their growth. This guide aims to simplify the process for you, offering clear, actionable advice on how to set mentoring goals that work for your mentee and that you can measure along the way.

Let’s start by delving into how to approach the goal-setting process. Then, we’ll touch on how to set SMART goals for mentoring – a method that ensures your objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. We’ll also provide real-world mentoring goals examples to get the wheels turning. With this knowledge, you’ll find goal-setting in a mentoring relationship to be more fulfilling and much less daunting.

How to Approach Setting Mentoring Goals

As a mentor, you’re not only a cheerleader but also a game strategist. You lay out a plan that’ll guide your mentee toward their desired destination. The key lies in teaming up to understand what they’re aiming for and then identifying the stepping stones that’ll get them there.

Now, you might ask, “How do I guide this ship without crashing it?” Think of it as a collaborative expedition – your role is not to dictate the itinerary but to co-navigate. Working together to identify what your mentee wants to achieve ensures that the goals you set are meaningful and tailored to their unique aspirations. Here’s how to approach setting mentoring goals:

1. Long-Term Vision

Start by asking your mentee where they see themselves in a few years. It helps to know the destination before you start the journey. Once that’s clear, break it down into smaller, achievable goals to make the process less overwhelming.

2. SWOT Analysis

This isn’t just jargon – it’s a practical tool. Run through a SWOT (that’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis with your mentee. Doing this can provide clarity and make setting mentoring goals more precise.

3. Feasibility Check

Assess how realistic these mentoring goals are. Are they achievable in the time frame you have? It’s good to be ambitious, but it’s also important to keep it real.

4. Make it SMART

Once you’re set on the goals, make them SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. This helps turn those big dreams into something tangible and actionable.

How to Set SMART Goals for Mentoring

Applying the SMART framework to your mentoring goals takes them from good to great, giving you a tool to turn abstract objectives into concrete actions. Here’s how to set SMART goals for mentoring:

Specific

It’s time to ditch vague or broad goals in favour of clear, well-defined objectives. Essentially, you’re aiming to say precisely what your mentee plans to achieve.

Have a chat with your mentee and drill down into what they’re looking to gain. Instead of setting mentoring goals like ‘improve communication skills’, make it more specific, such as ‘deliver two presentations to the team within the next month to sharpen public speaking abilities’. This level of detail provides both a clearer path and a sharper focus for your mentoring relationship.

Measurable

When we talk about ‘Measurable’ in the SMART framework, we’re essentially asking, “How will we know when we’ve achieved our goal?” The aim is to define objectives in quantifiable terms, giving you a clear metric for success.

Let’s say your mentee wants to improve their networking skills. Instead of vaguely aiming to ‘network more’, you could set a goal like, ‘attend four industry events within the next two months’. This provides a concrete way to measure success, serving as a benchmark to indicate how close or far your mentee is from achieving their goals.

Achievable

It’s all well and good to aim for the moon, but is it realistically within reach? An ‘Achievable’ goal is something that can be accomplished within the timeframe and with the resources available. The point is to find a balance between pushing your mentee’s boundaries and setting them up for success.

‘Achievable’ means balancing ambition with realism. For a mentee who’s keen to climb the corporate ladder quickly, a more achievable approach might be focusing on immediate tasks that lead to that bigger aspiration. Let’s say the mentee needs to enhance leadership skills. Start with objectives like, ‘lead a small team project from inception to completion within three months’. This makes the pathway to achieving their goals more pragmatic and less overwhelming.

Relevant

Relevancy ensures that mentoring goals are not just specific, measurable, and achievable, but also closely aligned with broader ambitions and the larger objectives of your mentoring relationship. A relevant goal is one that makes sense in the context of what your mentee wants to achieve.

To make sure your mentoring goals are relevant, align them with larger life or career ambitions. If your mentee wants to become a software engineer and they need to improve their coding skills, a relevant goal could be ‘complete an online Python course in the next two months’. This goal directly contributes to their career aspirations.

Time-Bound

Making a goal ‘Time-Bound’ means giving it a deadline. This injects a sense of urgency and can be a strong motivator for both you and your mentee to act, making sure your SMART goals for mentoring really hit home.

Whether your mentee aims to build a professional network or improve their soft skills, specify when each objective should be met. Rather than saying ‘meet industry professionals’, you could aim for ‘set up informational interviews with three industry professionals in the next four weeks’. Deadlines sharpen focus and lend each mentoring goal a clear timeframe for action. They serve as a constant reminder that helps make the entire process of setting mentoring goals more disciplined and actionable.

Mentoring Goals Examples

Setting mentorship goals might feel more attainable when supported by concrete examples. Below, we’ve outlined six different scenarios your mentee might find themselves in, complete with mentoring goals to suit each one.

1. Aiming for a Promotion

If your mentee is keen on moving up the career ladder, their mentoring goals could focus on building the specific skills and knowledge needed for the next role. This could mean working on project management, team leadership or industry-specific skills. For example:

• Encourage them to identify gaps in their skills that they need to address to make promotion. Then, put these at the heart of their mentoring goals for the next few months

2. Changing Career Paths

Changing careers is both thrilling and nerve-wracking. If you’re mentoring someone in this situation, their goals could include networking within the new industry, skill-building and navigating interviews for the new field. Some examples would be:

• Getting them to look at job descriptions for the role they’d like and working out what qualifications or skills they require to make the change. These can then be used to create your mentee’s goals
• Encourage them to attend networking events, or introduce them to some of your contacts in the industry they’re looking to get into

3. Improving Soft Skills

Your mentee knows the value of interpersonal skills but needs a nudge to improve. The goals in this scenario are about fostering those much-needed soft skills. For instance:

• Working on presentation skills by practising them as much as possible. You could even do some practice presentations during your mentoring sessions
• Improving communication skills by pushing out of their comfort zone and talking to new people, perhaps by joining a new group outside of work

4. Seeking a Better Work-Life Balance

Work is important, but so is life outside of it. If your mentee wants a more balanced existence, the goals should reflect that. Help them feel empowered to:

• Block out time to spend with their family without checking their work emails
• Try new hobbies outside of work

Share some of your own tips for staying on top of your work-life balance and ask your mentee to think about which would work best for them. They might be inspired to use these to create their own goals.

5. Building a Professional Network

In today’s world, who you know is almost as important as what you know. So, if your mentee needs to expand their contacts, encourage them to create goals around this, such as:

• Attend at least one networking event each month
• Actively post on LinkedIn more often to build their professional profile

6. Struggling with Time Management

Who doesn’t struggle with time management now and then? If your mentee needs help in managing time and keeping organised, why not aim to help them develop better habits? Share how you manage your time in a busy period and then ask them to create goals that would work for them, such as:

• Using to-do lists to allocate time to tasks – you could create the first of these together
• Learning to prioritise
• Tracking time spent on tasks

Start Achieving Your Own Mentor Goals with Career Navig8r

Ready to take the leap into mentoring? Dive in with Career Navig8r. It’s the ideal platform for both budding and seasoned mentors, connecting you to eager mentees and setting the stage for mutual growth.

By joining Career Navig8r, you’re not just helping someone carve their path, but you’re also charting your own mentoring journey. So, sign up now and let the mentoring magic begin!