A great mentor is someone special in everyone's life. They come in when you need help, listen to your problems and situations at hand, Get a good grasp of our constraints and strengths and recommend us solutions based on their past experiences. What makes them so valuable is not just their capabilities & intelligence to help us advance but also their willingness and motivation to see us grow. They might be just the 'fuel' we need to Fly.
But that doesn't mean there is nothing that is undesirable or makes Micro-Mentorship struggling for them. After all, a mentor is not someone you can buy or rent by just dropping cash. While it is fair to compensate your mentors with pay or strategic benefits but that is far from the only thing a great mentor would be interested in having. New mentees often make mistakes knowingly or unknowingly when they are working with Mentors, which can lead to trouble or cracks on your Micro-Mentorships. Based on our research, we will list down the top causes:
Insufficient research: It is so not fortunate for a capable & successful person to work with someone who is not sincere to their homework and come research-ready with the next steps. While Mentors may not expect you to completely command the meeting, but showing initiatives, asking strategic questions, having an impressive foundation, and a drive to give direction to this meeting are things most mentors appreciate. Great mentors prefer working with mentees whom the mentor finds intelligent & hardworking people.
Amorphous Ask: Ask any great mentor and they are likely to tell you that how difficult and chaotic it is to work with mentees who can't crystallise their ask. You need to understand that you are working with an experienced who enjoys solving specific well defined problems and not internet where you can get an answer for anything, whether useful or not!
Too Demanding: Every one believes in a high ROI, where with limited efforts we can deliver a lot of impact. This is totally true with mentors, as they prefer being involved in strategic help instead of ground level operational help which is far more time consuming and possibly sub-optimal use of a Mentor's intellect & time. If a Mentee is playing the 'needy kid' or a time-leech, chances are your Mentor won't work with you again or recommend you to their network.
Inability to extract intelligence & Insights: This is more mentee than mentor's responsibility by a long shot. But you should put in your efforts to make sure you are able to better utilise your mentor's capabilities. Anything less would lead to dis-satisfaction for top mentors in the long run.
Half-hearted execution: Now that you have got the insights and Intel, you are expected to make progress at the problem at hand. It is so gratifying for any mentor to see the seed they have planted grow into something admirable and valuable. Poor efficiency here, might make you look unimpressive in front of your mentors.
Freeloaders: While mentoring may not be about you paying your mentor enormously for their time & inputs, but as a mentee you need to make sure it is a fair deal for them and they are happy continuing in this partnership. For all those who are not convinced of this responsibility, much recommended to read this.
Low E.I: A mentor is also a human being at the end of the day, and they will much prefer working with people who are empathetic, likeable, flexible, agile, coachable, good communicators, self-aware, as well as who have great listeners. While this may not be an absolute deal breaker, it will only help to do standing good on the same.
Unprofessional conduct: Unfair or illogical ask, being impolite or braggarts, making unreasonable demands or talking down are unwanted for any person, but even more so when you are here to take guidance from a mentor.
If you felt the tonality of the current blog is a bit critical & depressing, then we encourage you to head here to gather some positivity and enthusiasm. But we want our users to shine with their Micro-mentorships by putting the right efforts and not repeating age old mistakes with a broken preparation process. Come, see how we empower our users to better prepare at World's First Wisdom Sharing Platform.
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