Mentoring guidelines for mentor and mentee
Mentoring is all about listening, sharing ideas and suggesting actionable pointers, so the outcome of the session would be fruitful to both mentor and mentee.
Got a chance to interact with industry professionals as part of mentoring sessions and had really good conversations with them.
I would like to share some effective mentoring tips which I use for all my sessions. This is purely gathered from my personal experience and works best for me and evolving as I do more sessions.
For mentor,
Part 1: Mentoring schedule and join the session
Once you get the mentoring schedule notification, keep a note of date and time for the session. Be mindful on the day of the session and join the session on time.
If you think you're not able to make it to the session, then ask the mentee to reschedule the session well in advance or cancel the session. This will help the mentee to plan their day well.
Part 2: Intro and Context setting
At the beginning of the session provide an intro about yourself, skills and expertise - This will help people attending our session to know what kind of help or input they can get from us. Also ask what is expectation out of the session
Ask them to introduce, and let the other person speak about their need in which they seek help
Part 3: Listening the need and confirm
Listen patiently without interrupting, then observe what kind of problem they are trying to solve or input expected from us
Explain the abstracted understanding of need of the mentee and confirm is this what they are expecting us to solve
Part 4: Sharing inputs for the problem statement
After understanding the need for help in part 2, you can start sharing how to approach the problem
Take examples from your past experience or similar problem statements you tried to resolve
In case of career aspiration needs explain them what the mentee can do to achieve their aspiration
There are chances mentee can also might need help in resume reviews, so if possible try to gather info on resume writing skills to review the resume
Part 5: Share actionable feedback
It is very important to share the actionable feedback for mentees to work their problem statement or aspiration interest
Also we can ask mentees to setup follow-up session or we can be reachable for them in case of any questions while implementing the actions
For mentee,
Part 1: Scheduling, Tracking and join session on time
After setting up time for mentoring session, keep a note of date and time for the session
If you think you're not able to make it to the session, then reschedule the session well in advance or cancel the session. This will help mentors to plan their day well.
On the date of mentoring call, Be on time to join the session
Be responsible to join the session. Please keep in mind we are blocking someone else's time so we need to respect that other person's time and effort
Part 2: Be clear with your need for the session
- Before joining the session, understand why you need the session now. If possible send a note to the mentor before the session. It will give heads up to the mentor well in advance about the need of the session. So they can be prepared.
Part 3: Listen and Ask questions
Listen while mentoring speaking and take notes if needed for your future reference
After listening to the mentor's input, ask questions if you're not clear with any input shared by the mentor. More questions you ask, more the session can be useful
Part 4: Take actions on the feedback
- If the mentor is sharing actionable feedback as part of the session take notes and then start working towards the actions
- Setup followup session
Conclusion
Mentoring sessions can be both beneficial if we are prepared for it and keeping in mind some of the suggestions drafted in this article.
Be mindful on the day of session and join the session on time.
Share your experiences if have taken or conducted a mentoring session.
Pla a Mentoring Session
If anyone wants to connect with me via mentoring session you can block time in calendly.
We can discuss blogging, oss contributions, career guidance on cloud, infra automation as code, DevOps/SRE, and can discuss programming trends!!
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