4.1 Building your mentoring skills

Key areas to work on are communication skills, empathy and goal setting. There are many scenarios that will allow you to develop and enhance those skills, from communicating with members of your team in the workplace to setting goals for your own children.

Practise being really present in every conversation – not cutting the other person off or jumping in to finish off what you think they’re going to say, but really listening and responding in a measured and thoughtful way.

The Indeed Editorial Team (2024) offers useful advice about becoming a better mentor. You’ll notice that most of the following examples focus on strong communication:

• Get to know your mentee – it’s beneficial to invest time in getting to know them as a person, e.g. finding out about their educational background, personal goals, etc.
• Allow them to learn from your mistakes – this might be challenging, but can help to build trust as well as improving their problem solving skills.
• Know what you have to offer – before you start, make a list of your skills, strengths, useful networks etc. and be clear about what you can and can’t help with.
• Celebrate their successes – this allows you to practice empathy and demonstrates that you understand their perspective.

You will find out more about training for mentors in Week 8.