I hope you have become convinced through these last few posts that having mentors is an essential part of your personal growth plan.
Here are 10 Commandments of Mentoring from Stanley and Clinton in Connecting: The Mentoring Relationships You Need to Succeed in Life:
- Relationship: You will have differing depths of relationship with your mentors, but all relationships require effort to maintain.
- Purpose: Mentoring is not random. It is for a very clear purpose or area of your life. Be clear on the purpose of a mentoring relationship.
- Regularity: Once a week is ideal. But whatever the frequency, discuss the expectations ahead of time.
- Accountability: Give your mentor explicit freedom to hold you accountable in your growth area.
- Communication Mechanisms: Especially be clear on how you want negative feedback to be communicated.
- Confidentiality: Rather than assuming your mentor will know what level of confidentiality you are comfortable with, describe your expectations right up front. A good mentor leans toward very high levels of confidentiality.
- Life Cycles of Mentoring: Avoid open ended mentoring relationships. Set a time limit from the beginning.
- Evaluation: The mentor evaluates you, but you are both involved in evaluating the mentoring process. Schedule evaluation times throughout the duration of the mentorship.
- Expectations: Most of the commandments relate to this issue of expectations in some way. And most negative mentoring experiences are due to unclear or uncommunicated expectations.
- Closure: Even if a friendship develops and continues beyond the formal mentoring time, bring closure to the mentoring relationship.
So there you have it: With this and the last few posts, you know everything you need to accelerate your personal growth through mentors.
Now take action and get the mentor you need!
