5 Effective Strategies for Enriching Your Mentee’s Experience

What is there to get out of a mentorship?

As a Mentor, this is a question you’ll find yourself asking from time to time as you navigate your Mentee’s needs and expectations, doing your best to provide them with the best possible guidance.

It’s an important question and one that we know our Mentors take seriously, which is why we’ve put together this list of five strategies for improving your Mentee’s experience and helping them to get exactly what they’re looking for out of mentorship.

1. Setting Tailored Goals

During your first meeting you should always make a point of asking your Mentee what they hope to get out of mentorship. Of course, this is standard, common-sense advice for any relationship but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless because, in the context of mentoring, expectations can vary a great deal.

Once you’ve nailed down exactly what your Mentee’s expectations are, you’ll be in the perfect position to start developing some goals together. Now’s the time to keep in mind that every Mentee is different and so their goals will be as well. Some will already be working the job role you’re mentoring them for. Others will be looking to find their way into that job.

Among those still hoping to achieve that job role the path to success will still vary a great deal depending on their experience and their skillset as well as their strengths and their weaknesses.

By helping your Mentee to develop goals that are perfectly tailored to their needs, you’ll be placing them on the path to success from day one.

2. Providing Structured Feedback Sessions

Feedback sessions are at the heart of what makes an effective mentoring relationship, but if you want to improve your productivity and track your goals more effectively then it’s best to provide a sense of structure to your feedback sessions. This can vary greatly from client to client so be sure to discuss how the two of you want to approach this but as a general rule every feedback session needs three core components:

1. A situation update: where your Mentee discusses where they feel they are with their goals and any concerns they might have.
2. A Mentor response: in which the Mentor discusses how they feel things are progressing, where the Mentee is succeeding, and any areas that may need improvement.
3. A goal: in each session, you should also be establishing a goal with your Mentee to be achieved next. If a Mentee’s current goal is large enough that it’s likely to stretch over multiple feedback sessions, then it’s good to provide incremental goals each week in order to break that larger goal down.

How you order those components is, of course, entirely up to you and your Mentee and you may well choose to add other secondary components. Perhaps you and your Mentee will prefer to start with an icebreaker? Or else you’ll split the Mentor response into pros and cons.

What’s important is that you find the balance that’s right for your Mentee and gives them the most effective feedback and guidance.

3. Encouraging Autonomy

It’s very easy for Mentees to become over-reliant on their Mentors. Rather than learning to apply the principles they’ve been taught, some Mentees will come to you with any difficulty they face before attempting to solve it on their own. Alternatively, some Mentees will respond poorly to guidance that’s too direct and gives them little personal agency in their decisions.

In both of these cases, the cause of the problem is the same: hands-on-mentoring.

Hands-on-mentoring is a common pitfall for Mentors who want the best out of their Mentees. It’s easy to slip into playing a more active role when, in reality, what your Mentee really needs is someone who’ll respond to them. That’s why, whenever possible, you should take the chance to encourage your Mentee to make decisions on their own using the guidance you’ve given them.

4. Exploring Experiential Learning Opportunities

The best way to learn is almost always through doing and, as you’re taking a more hands-off approach, you might also encourage your Mentee towards real-world learning opportunities.

From work-experience programs to internships, if your Mentee wants to build their skills quickly whilst also improving their CV/portfolio, then any chance to get them out and on the job is probably a chance worth taking. By encouraging your Mentee to take these opportunities, you’ll also be pushing them in the direction of growth and development.

5. Cultivating a Supportive Environment

One thing many Mentees want to get out of mentorship is a feeling of professional support. They want to feel that the decisions they’re making come from a place of real experience, giving them the confidence to know that they’re on the path to success.

In order to provide this kind of support, be sure to address any concerns your Mentee has and get to know them on a slightly more personal level. You won’t have to become close friends, but learning about their dreams, their fears, and the things that motivate them could help you to give better support and guidance in a professional context.

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