Mentorship

Lay the groundwork for the mentoring relationship. How often you’ll meet, how long the meetings will last for and their structure. Also make it clear what’s discussed remains confidential.

Establish goals, preferably during the kickoff meeting. Create 2-5 things that you are looking to achieve.

This will provide the structure necessary to ensure you get the assistance you need to move forward with your goals, even if you only meet once per month by phone.

Have questions ready. Be prepared to discuss actions and progress since your last meeting.

Open ended questions are questions that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no. This is important to be able to extract important information.

As you are going through your day, jot down questions or challenges that arise so that when you meet, you’ll have pertinent things to ask.

You don’t have to wait for your mentor to act on something, or ask something. If you simply sit back, you’re going to fall behind.