Mentoring-Criterias of A Good Mentor and What Mentor Does

[Md Hassan Adan]

Dear Colleagues,

 

Please find in attachment a short write up on Mentoring for your discussion.

 

Thank you and warm regards,

 

Md Hassan Adan

 

Criteria of a good mentor

1. Experienced - Mentors are typically older, but that is not a rule. As Bud Bilinch from Fast Company states, one of his mentors is 20 years younger than him and is teaching him the ways of the Web 2.0 world.

2. Character – Your mentor should be a person that you respect and admire. Many times a protege (mentee) patterns his or her life after the life of the mentor and thus you want to ensure you are following a person that with good moral standing.

3. Similar Goals - Find a mentor that has goals similar to yours. It can only help your chances of success if your mentor has already gone through a lot of the work you have in front of you.

4. Availability - Your mentor needs to be available for interaction. It can be great to have a really successful person mentoring you, but if they aren’t available to meet, it defeats the purpose of the arrangement.

5. Open-minded – You need a mentor that is open-minded. This will allow you to progress in a way you need to progress, not necessarily in the way the mentor would prefer.

6. Caring – We all want people to think what we’re doing is important especially our mentor. A mentor needs to care about your success just as much as you do. This is a person that should help you up when you fall and all of this starts with the mentor caring about you and your success.

7. Positive – Your mentor needs to be positive and help keep you positive. If you spend a meaningful amount of time with your mentor, and they are positive, this is bound to rub off on you. Remember, good thoughts in, good thoughts out. People want to work with other positive people. The future is bright and as Henry Ford says “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.”

8. Focus – You want a mentor who is able to not only focus on you and what you would like to achieve, but also help you focus. For instance, let’s say you are new to starting a business and have a mentor who has been successful in starting many businesses over the past 30 years. Starting a business can be a daunting task. There’s a lot of things to think about and especially in the beginning, you have to wear many hats. A mentor can help direct you to what might be the most important point in terms of starting a business.

9. Believes in You – A mentor needs to believe in your potential. If they aren’t sold on you, they aren’t going to put all of their effort into the mentor-protege relationship. No one wins in this relationship and both parties are wasting their time.

10. Open and Honest – A mentor-protege relationship is most beneficial when you can both share experiences and bits of information that a normal acquaintance wouldn’t know about you. Openness and honesty also help build credibility and trust among the mentor and protege.

Remember, a mentoring relationship is only as good as the sum of it’s parts. This is only a guide line for what to look for in a mentor. You may add or subtract from this list as pertains to your situation.

What Mentors Do http://ceres.ca.gov/cra/mentor/

• Set high expectations of performance
• Offer challenging ideas
• Help build self-confidence
• Encourage professional behavior
• Offer friendship
• Listen to personal problems
• Confront negative behaviors and attitudes
• Teach by example
• Provide growth experiences
• Offer quotable quotes
• Explain how the Department/Agency works
• Coach their mentees
• Offer wise counsel
• Stand by their mentees in critical situations
• Encourage winning behavior
• Trigger self-awareness
• Inspire their mentees
• Share critical knowledge
• Offer encouragement
• Assist with their Mentee's careers

My comments

I think one of the greatest compliments is to be considered a mentor to someone.

I totally agree that not everyone can be a mentor; it is even harder to be a good mentor. Firstly, it is the trust and the total confidentiality that has to be ascertain and mindful at all time. 

I definitely think it’s worth the time of the mentor and protege to make sure they have a good fit. Knowing the problem/issues that surround the mentee and how to mitigate, find a solution and lesson learn from the mentee success is crucial.

The mentor must believe that the mentee will succeed at the end of all the sessions. When your mentor does not believe in you it shows. You cannot hide it. What they have to do is to be opened in identifying the mentee’s strength and weakness and set  the plan for success not failure. It’s true that you need to find someone who can truly help you. A mentor who wasn’t really interested in helping will only dampened his spirit to grow; worst damaged his potential to succeed in his work. If that the case, the mentee will have to identify a new mentor.

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Mentors can play a critical role in your professional and personal development–no matter how many years of experience you can state on your resume.

Mentor is something which is essential for success. You need someone who can be by your side and force you to push you limits to the max. Not only can this make you a better person but it helps you appreciate unconditional love for someone else.

 

 

 

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