8 tips for a healthy and fulfilling mentoring relationship

As we all know, the pandemic has greatly changed the world of work as we know it. Virtual mentoring is, more than ever, an indispensable tool to help you overcome the challenges associated with COVID-19.

Is mentoring new to you? Elo's mentoring experts offer 8 tips to help you start and maintain a healthy and fulfilling mentoring relationship, even when you're teleworking!

For mentees :

1. Get involved. Your mentor helps you on a volunteer basis, and expects nothing in return except your involvement in the relationship. If you are never available, or only respond after a long delay to each message, he may take more time for another mentee who will be more proactive.
2. Accept that your mentor is not available. Being a volunteer, this person devotes some of his or her free time to help you. Between work and personal obligations, and the crisis related to VIDOC-19, it is not uncommon to run out of time in a day.
3. Define what you want. Is there anything in particular that you want to find out from your mentor? Why did you choose this mentor? Share your expectations with your mentor so that he or she can help you better. While it is best to share these expectations with your mentor at the beginning of the mentoring relationship, be aware that sometimes it can be difficult to formulate specific expectations. Feel comfortable just talking. This is an equally valid reason. Just take the time to tell your mentor!
4. Thank your mentor for his or her time and help. It may seem trivial, but it's always nice to receive a thank you. Saying thank you is quick, it's free and always very much appreciated.

For mentors :

1. Define a framework and expectations. Your mentee may be in his or her first mentoring relationship and may not know how or what to ask for. Help him or her clarify expectations and define a process that will work for both of you.
2. Listen before you advise. It may seem obvious, but if your mentee presents you with a situation that you know well, it would be easy to give him or her examples from your experience right away. However, even if they are similar, no two situations are ever the same! The environment is not the same, the people involved in the situation are not the same, and your mentee does not think or act the same way you do. It is therefore essential to obtain a lot of information in order to be able to help your mentee in a thoughtful way.
3. Let them decide. You are not there to offer them THE solution to their problem without reflection or discussion. Your role is to advise and make your mentee think so that he or she has all the keys in hand to make his or her own decision.
4. It's possible that you don't have any more time and it's ok. You want to help young (and not so young) people and that's all to your credit. Unfortunately, sometimes you have unexpected or more complicated times that make you little or not at all available. We all go through those kinds of times. Feel free to let your mentee know and make yourself unavailable to avoid receiving new requests for mentoring.