Mentoring others could be one of the most fulfilling, beneficial and insightful things you can do in life. It is such a gratifying feeling to see the plant you have nurtured, grow faster! Success is achieving something for yourself, and delight in seeing other's life change from your efforts.
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.”— Benjamin Disraeli
While best mentors/coaches are open-minded, non-discriminative, flexible, humble and empathetic, it does not have to mean that they should always agree to Mentor everyone who makes s request to them. Not only because that would lead to over-consumption of time & energy from other precious responsibilities in life, but also because not every mentoring partnership is positioned to yield great results. Here is what you should consider before assuring a mentee your time, efforts & resources:
Alignment b/w expertise and the situation: Do I have the necessary expertise & insights to drive a significant impact for the mentee?
Reasonability of Ask: Has the mentee come up with a feasible and achievable problem?
Investment: How much time, efforts & resources can I deploy into this situation?
Initiative: Has the mentee done the necessary research and made the efforts to truly benefit from this discussion?
Compensation & Rewards: Is the mentee compensating fairly for my efforts and what other strategic benefits am I getting for the time invested?
Network Growth: Upon a successful partnership, can this mentee make introductions for me or endorse me for my efforts?
Past Performance: How would past mentors rate this mentee and would they work this mentee again?
All of the above, will help inform us if we should consider working with this mentee? As intuitive it is, the more Yes's in the above list the more preference we should have for working with the mentee. But the job does not end with selecting great mentees. Once you start working with them you should look for the below personality traits in your mentee, to take the mentorship forward with a longer partnership. These characteristics are:
Transparency & Context: Did the Mentee do a good job of providing sufficient details about the situation and demonstrated good honesty and integrity?
Active listening: Is the Mentee good as grasping my insights and do they ask the right questions to build advantages?
Utilizing Intelligence: How successful was the mentee when it comes to fully utilizing the mentor's intelligence & insights?
Exceed Outcomes: Was the mentee able to drive the discussion to exceed the outcome targetted from this partnership?
Conversation Experience: Did the mentee demonstrate good character and professionalism as a part of this discussion?
Dedication & Rigour: Did the mentee do their homework to truly benefit from this discussion?
Detailed Feedback: Did the mentee give me thorough feedback into how my inputs moved the needle for them and where can I advance myself as a Mentor?
If you see plenty of Yes's that basically means you have mentored someone remarkable and you made the right choice by guiding this person.
At Headstrt, we are building World's First Sharing Wisdom platform in which people can freely share Insights with each other for free, and if a particular insight seems very intriguing then they can securely book a session with this person to benefit from a Micromentoring or Feedback or consultation. Being able to help others or request help is a fundamental right that many of us are deprived of. We believe Machine Learning, Social Interactions and Empathy can truly solve this problem and help everyone grow faster.
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