Mentoring: 5 steps to lead your Mentee to success

Teamwork doesn’t always refer to a large group of people working towards accomplishing an organisation’s common goal. Sometimes a team can be as small as two members, a mentor and a mentee, working towards an individual goal. Here are 5 steps to lead your mentee to success. 

Mentoring involves an experienced person sharing knowledge and guiding a less experienced person towards accomplishing their goals. Mentoring can be a very rewarding but difficult task and by following a few clear steps, mentors will see both their mentee’s and their own goals achieved effectively and efficiently.

Step 1: Define the mentee’s goal

The first step to a good mentor-mentee relationship is defining what it is your mentee would like to accomplish. Whether it is improving on presentation skills, time-management or communication, it is important for mentors to be clear on what it is the mentee would like to focus on.

Step 2: Ask the right questions

Once the mentee’s goal is defined, now is the time to ask the follow-up questions which will allow you to refine your guidance. If the mentee would like to improve on their time-management then consider asking “Once you have improved your time-management, what would you like to make more time for?”

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Step 3: Find out the context

Learn a little bit about your mentee’s life outside of the training. What brought them to this point? What motivates and excites them? Do they have any hobbies or interests outside of work? Consider trying some icebreaker exercises or personality tests so that the two of you get to know each other on a personal level as well as a professional one. Learning more about what makes your mentee tick will help you to assess their challenges, create a learning plan and achieve your common goals more effectively and efficiently.

Step 4: Make predictions

When in a mentor-mentee team, you as a mentor must be able to get a sense of a mentee’s skills, attitude, and the resources needed to reach their goal. Making predictions, not assumptions, will help you anticipate your mentee’s progress and how the goal-reaching process will unfold.

Consider asking questions about previous successes and challenges as well as about previous professional relationships and apply the answers to the current mentoring. Questions such as “What did you do the last time you faced a challenge at work?” or “Tell me about a time you felt accomplished.” or “How would a previous co-worker describe you?”

Step 5: Execute and communicate

Now is the time to help your mentee accomplish their goals and continue to assist them along the way with your advice and experience. Make sure to continue t0 assess how they are feeling about the learning process. It is important to maintain a line of communication throughout the entire mentor-mentee process as well as following an accomplished goal.

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