Three Ways to Be a Great Mentor — Full Circle Mentors

Mentorship is deeply rewarding, offering you a chance to demonstrate leadership, expand your network, and the opportunity to pay it forward. But without a thoughtful approach, mentorship can be a messy or even forgettable experience. Here are our top tips for being a great mentor.

Tips for Being a Good Mentor

Bring Your Best

The most helpful mentors are motivated by their ability to positively influence others’ growth. They’re energized by helping others (and at FullCircle, the fact that they’re being paid is fuel for the fire).

The best mentors:

Demonstrate professional maturity. You’re a leader in the workplace, value diversity, and own up to your mistakes—especially if you happen to make one when coaching your mentee.
Have a solid network. Being well-connected not only allows you to make valuable connections for your mentee, you also strengthen your own relationships when you share your insights or learn from other mentors.
Offer empathy and imagination. You can apply the lessons from one situation to another context, and you truly listen to your mentee, offering creative suggestions and insightful questions.
Know when to push and when to step back. You push for the success of the mentoring relationship while giving your mentee the autonomy they need.
Put in the time. As a mentor, you’re the driving force of this relationship, so it’s important for you to be willing to put in the time outside of meetings to process conversations and develop ideas.

Be Candid

We’re big fans of radical candor, so much so that we even made the book about it a top pick for our January reading list. In the words of Kim Scott, who developed the theory, this approach helps you build trust and transparency by being honest with your feedback. You care about your mentee, so it’s important to offer feedback in a way that’s diplomatic and constructive, without sugar-coating anything.

Allow Your Mentee to Do the Work

Being a mentor is a big responsibility. You’ve been entrusted with teaching someone the ropes in professional settings, whether it’s how to navigate a tricky situation, achieve goals or make a big transition. That said, you are not responsible for your mentee’s growth—they are.

Your goal is to teach your mentee how to find the answers they need. Rather than telling your mentee exactly how you would do something, try questions or share examples that help lead your mentee to the right path.

You can share your perspective and even your network, but you can’t make someone else put in the hard work of embracing change. Encourage your mentee to own their growth process and to be an active participant in the process, then get out of the way.

Curious about the other side of things? Are you someone who wants to be the best mentee they can? Read our tips for being a successful mentee.