How to do Mentoring effectively

The aim of mentoring is helping a person to attain his or her full potential as a human being. It is not only focused on the development of skills, workplace performance and knowledge, but also on the development of emotional, spiritual and personal growth. A mentor can help the person to overcome career, financial and personal issues and guide him in the right direction with appropriate solutions.

Exposure to electronic and web interactive media has improved the scope of mentoring. Most of the young adults are more informed and educated, are looking for mentors who are capable of handling their problems. Mentors should be experienced and well educated to handle the problems of this modern generation. A mentor has to put extra efforts to identify the limiting or stumbling blocks in the path of the growth of the person and help him to continue his growth journey.

Trying to mentor a person who is not in need of a mentor is a wast of time and energy. Generally, people will not heed your free advice. I tried to give free advice to my colleague not to put all his savings in the stock market. But he was not in a receptive mode at that time. When the recession hit the stock market in 2008, he lost a lot of his money. Then he came to me asking for some financial advice. He wanted to know where and how to invest. Now he is in a mode to accept some advice. He listened to me and took some action by putting some money into the property, some money in his personal development and carrier development etc.

So, when there is no need of a mentor, putting your energy and time to mentor a guy is a waste of time and energy. You will not get any result. 99% of your efforts will go waste. If you put your time and energy in a person who is dead broke and desperately need some guidance, put all your energy and time in that person. You will get 99% results. If you are a result oriented mentor, please scan and ascertain the level of his/her need of mentoring. You may classify, the high, medium and low level of requirement of mentoring.

If you deal with the high level of requirement, then you will get 50 to 75% result. Dealing with people who are the medium level you get only 25 to 50% result. Dealing with a group who is a low level of requirement, you will get only one to 25% of the result. A mentor can perform only when the aspirant is passionate for the mentoring.

To build rapport: to be comfortable with the person to share your feelings, issues and also to find solutions. Basically, the one whom you feel approachable. Rapport can be built in a day or in a month, but for some cases, it may take many years. Also, there are cases where the rapport cannot be built at all. Therefore, the person who takes the plunge to mentor a person shall be capable enough to break the ice between both and thus establish rapport.

To Listen: This skill is very rarely seen in people, as all wanted them to be heard by the others. But the mentor has to be a good listener. Not only a good listener but also while he /she is before their mentee, one should keep a blank mind, not to be judgmental about the other person. Being non-judgmental helps to analyze the issues spoken out by the mentee. The mind should be a blank and board. The mentor should let the mentee pour out his /her issues. This helps them to feel relieved with their issues and find solutions by themselves.

To elicit the mentee’s own wisdom: many of the times we think that solution is received only when one is provided. But when the mentee pour’s out to his/her mentor, the solution can be checked in the conversation itself. The mentee will definitely be having some options in the mind to work on when the issue is creped in. It's only that the mentee needs a reason to get it out. The reason should be through the mentor. Therefore, if the mentee is allowed to talk and pour out about himself, the options of solutions itself line up. Then the mentor can work around those options in discussion with the mentee.

The mentor does not have to be older, wiser or have specialized knowledge in any field. They need to be skilled in leading a mentoring conversation. This would only come when the mentee would feel that the mentor is approachable. The mentor can as well work with his team together in terms of mentoring them. This is labeled as ‘group mentoring’. Here the mentor can be teamed with several mentees who meet at the same time. A wonderful synergy can develop in this environment. As the mentor poses questions, listens and reflects he or she engages all members of the group into the conversation. Each one has their own experience and insight to share and can draw their own learning from the discussion. This would also help the mentor to keep up the team morale and motivation. Since the major causes for the teams not to perform is due to lack of recognition, motivation and morale.

There are certain qualities which one should possess effectively doing the job of mentoring. One of the quality is Patience

As different people holding different culture and values, it is very important to have the patience to keep up with the mentee. Many times you find people go back to their old habits or not taking action in a specified time limit even after repeated reminders. In such situations, there are chances that you may lose your temper. Having the patience to understand the mentored and maintain a good relationship is a good quality a mentor can possess.

Often mentored one would be complaining that the mentor is disturbing them or too much involvement in their day to day activities. It is better to keep your interaction limited by once in a week or twice. Some causes demand more interaction in a week. Mutually agreed number of interaction per week is the better way to avoid such complaints.

If you charge money for doing mentoring, there are chances that you get good response from the client. If you provide free mentoring, then the clients may take it for granted. If the client get good results from your mentoring, they may reward you with good gifts in a later date. Whatever you do, do it with full heart and full mind. Who knows when and how you will get paid for.