Guidance for Mentees

This quick guide will help you make the most of your mentoring experience. Your approach as a mentee is essential to building a positive partnership and generating successful outcomes.

To make the most of mentoring, mentees should aim to embody the values of:

Professionalism: understand and respect the partnership
Initiative: take ownership for achieving your goals
Honesty: communicate openly and be receptive to feedback

  • Mentoring relationships vary in formality, but they are different from a friendship. Think friendly, but always professional!

    To make the most of your mentoring partnership, you should:

    • Set and respect boundaries
      Ensure you and your mentor are in agreement about the fundamentals of the partnership. How will you communicate? How often? What will you / won’t you discuss? Your mentor may suggest these boundaries at the beginning of the partnership, but if they don’t then you should introduce the topic to ensure you have matching expectations.

    • Understand what support is on offer
      Mentoring is not the same as teaching, and it is not a form of support like counselling or therapy. Instead, you can expect to benefit from your mentor’s previous experiences in a similar position to the one you currently occupy, through guidance and non-directive suggestions to help you work towards stated outcomes.

    • Appreciate your mentor’s time
      Understand that your mentor is sharing their time and experience for your benefit. You should be appreciative of their support and demonstrate this through a professional attitude including turning up on time, giving advance notice if you need to rearrange a meeting, responding to online communication in good time, and acknowledging their support.

      Your mentor is more likely to feel their time and energy is being respected if you are an active participant in the partnership. You can expect the same investment in return.

  • Mentoring are the senior partners in a mentoring relationship, but it’s important that the mentee uses their initiative and takes ownership of the direction of the partnership. Don’t be passive!

    To create a partnership that works best for both of you, ensure you:

    • Set SMART targets of what you would like to achieve
      Be clear about what you want to get out of mentoring by setting SMART targets. What will you achieve? How will you know when you’ve done this? When will you have done it by? You should work with your mentor to lay out objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

      You may also wish to create a reflective diary to help you track your progress and new ideas over time. Try writing a quick paragraph after each meeting or discussion.

    • Direct the conversation
      Help your mentor to help you by directing the conversation, ensuring you are ready with topics you want to speak about and questions for them to answer. Why not try creating an agenda for each meeting? If you wish to, you could share what you’d like to discuss with your mentor in advance.

      Being an active participant will show your mentor you value the partnership and help you to get the most out of it.

    Quick tip! Try not to focus on questions for your mentor that you could answer by looking online. Your mentor isn’t there to replace a search engine. You should try to focus on questions that investigate their personal experiences and opinions: valuable commodities you can’t replicate online.

  • You should communicate honestly and openly with your mentor, remembering that it is a professional relationship where things can be shared in confidence.* Expect the same honesty in return.

    Remember: constructive feedback is not criticism. Your mentor may suggest or say something you don’t agree with, but it’s important to take time to acknowledge and consider other opinions and options. You are not obliged to act upon any suggestion you receive, but you should consider these and discuss them fully. Being introduced to new ideas is one of the greatest benefits of mentoring.

    *Confidentiality applies in mentoring relationships until one party believes another or any individual is at risk of harm. In this case they should share their concerns with an appropriate party such as Student Services (asc@).

Cookie preferences