The Purpose of a Mentoring Relationship
Mentoring is a supportive relationship that helps develop skills, behaviors, and insights that will enable the mentee to attain her goals, and where the mentor provides guidance while also learning and further developing her leadership.
Mentorship Guidelines & Logistics
• Our Mentorship Program is for women only.
• Periodic meetings, monthly cadence suggested.
• Meetings can be remote with video, but preference for in-person where possible.
• Mentee is responsible for scheduling meetings and setting agenda for all meetings.
Mentee
Role of Mentee:
• Proactively manage the mentoring relationship and play an active role in meetings: Having regular and productive meetings is the responsibility of the mentee.
• Bring real situations, issues, development needs to the mentoring meetings: Early in the relationship, it’s important for mentees to establish a clear set of goals and expectations.
• Share experiences openly, challenge intelligently and ask questions: Never assume that your mentor intuitively knows your personality or communication/learning style. Being open and honest is important because mentors cannot effectively make a difference with untrue or partial information.
• Be prepared and willing to be challenged and to receive honest feedback: Being oversensitive to criticism will make it more difficult for the mentor to relax and be helpful.
• Implement agreed actions and update the mentor on progress: It’s important for mentees to actually accomplish the action items that they establish with their mentors. Mentors may feel unappreciated if their guidance is disregarded. Providing your mentor with updates regarding your progress will naturally facilitate discussion of the “next steps”.
• Acknowledge the mentor’s contribution: Saying thank you is important. Conversely, the mentee should give personal feedback about the mentor’s performance in their role, particularly if requested by the mentor.
Mentor
Role of Mentor:
• Listen with Empathy: Listening with empathy means that a mentor is not simply listening for content and trying to “solve the problem.” An empathic listener tries to understand the speaker’s point-of-view and often responds in such a way that conveys this understanding.
• Share Learning Experiences: Mentors who share their learning experiences often benefit their mentees as well as the relationship by: providing real-life examples of how difficulties were met and overcome, increasing the level of mutual trust, and facilitating the bi-directional flow of communication.
• Be Mindful of Cultural Differences: Mentoring someone of a different culture or background can often present a challenge. Good mentors tend to recognize, embrace, and bridge cultural differences.
• Build the Network: Good mentors often help mentees with the development of their networks. Look for opportunities to introduce your mentee to people who can help her with professional development, technical skills, and/or socio-cultural issues.
• Stay in Touch: While the frequency of contact is largely up to the mentee, it is important for the mentor to keep her mentee on the “radar screen.”
Applications for our 2025 Mentorship Program will open soon!
For more information or if you have any questions, please reach out to Melody at m.mokhtarian@wifm.org.