Fostering A Mentorship
There are a number of different ways you can foster a mentoring relationship once it’s begun. Watch the video below to learn how.
Discussion
Engaging your mentees in conversation is a great way to foster the mentorship. In the video, Shawn mentions that he engages his mentees in discussion using an inquiry approach, where mentees are challenged to ask and find answers to questions. These conversations can happen in the classroom or workplace, or you can find a more informal setting, like a coffee shop. How you choose to set those boundaries is between you and your mentee. For example, Megan describes keeping her meetings on campus. These boundaries may change as your mentoring relationship evolves. For Allison, entering the redefinition phase of a mentoring relationship often includes meeting with former mentees in social situations.
Encouragement
Provide encouragement to your mentees. Share what you’ve learned from your own experiences when things didn’t go according to plan. Look out for your mentee’s needs and interests by identifying opportunities to get involved in projects, activities, or events. You can help build your mentee build a network by connecting them to other students or faculty members they might benefit from knowing.
Self-Care
While your relationship is focused on the growth of your mentee, Lisa introduces the idea of self-care as an important consideration. It’s important to recognize and respect your own limits in any mentoring relationship. As the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Handling Difficult Situations
In a mentorship, there may be times that you face a challenging situation. Watch the video below, to learn about ways to handle difficult situations with your mentee.
Empathetic questioning combined with active listening is critical to a positive mentoring experience. As a mentor, your role is to listen first, suggest second. There are a number of different ways you can show you’re listening.
- Non-verbal behavior matters. Consider, smiling and nodding.
- Focus your comments on whatever the mentee has just said.
- Use probing questions. (“Why do you think that is?”)
- Validate the mentee’s ideas and check for clarity through rephrasing. (“If I understand correctly, you’re saying that…”)
As appropriate, try to include your mentee in decision-making. If your mentee comes to you with a challenge they’ve experienced, ask, “How have you tried to address this?” The more involved mentees are in the process, the more committed they will be to making a change.
Reflection:
Based on the information provided in this workshop, please consider:
- How can you cultivate an effective mentoring relationship when working with undergraduate students? Think about something from this workshop that you’d like to implement.
If you would like to share your response, check out the interactive activity below. You can click on the plus sign in the bottom right corner to add a response. This is not an assessed component of this workshop, rather an opportunity for you and your peers to reflect and share. Point-form is perfectly acceptable, and your response will remain anonymous.
