My Five Top Tips For The Budding Mentor

What you need to know
To become a trusted advisor

 By Alex Malley

“I have recently been thinking about the critical role of mentors in our society. There comes a point in many people’s careers when they elevate from mentee to mentor. It is a milestone which in many ways marks the transition from manager to true leader. I regard the opportunity to become a mentor—a trusted advisor—as a gift and a responsibility not to be taken lightly.However, I find it puzzling that so many senior people in business struggle to embrace the role willingly and with gusto.When I talk with those people about why they do not mentor, I frequently receive reasons littered with feelings of unease and doubt. They feel uncomfortable with the idea of offering career advice to a young professional who does not work directly for them. How could they offer guidance to a person who works outside of their own professional context? That is the point, I tell them. And it is not all about giving advice, or telling someone what to do. Yet, reluctance in many persists.

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The best mentors are those who
say the least, but provide a sense
of conscience that the individual may,
or may not, be taking the correct path.

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So, in the spirit of dispelling these misconceptions, and based on my 20-plus years of experience in mentoring people from all walks of life and professions, here are my five guiding principles for the budding mentor.

1. You do not need to know all the answers. The role of the mentor is to provoke the individual into thinking about what they should be considering when faced with an issue or circumstance. The best mentors are those who say the least, but provide a sense of conscience that the individual may, or may not, be taking the correct path.

2. Ask the right questions. Sometimes the mentee is so entrenched in an issue, incessantly thinking about it and drawing negative conclusions, that they have…”

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Watch Get Satisfaction CEO, Wendy Lea, talk about how to be a good mentor below: