Understanding YOUR formation as a mentor
This is a good time to sit down with a notebook and do some reflection on the following questions:​
  • Who were your mentors? Who influenced you and how? Who walked alongside you? Teachers, coaches, profs, relatives, neighbours, family friends, colleagues.
  • How did the mentoring start? Did they approach you or did it develop naturally?
  • What did they say and do? How was something transmitted to you?
  • What did it feel like? Who was there? What did they say?
  • What was the 'soul' impression made upon you? 
  • What did you decide to do with that experience?
  • Did those people who influenced you know what happened for you out of the mentoring? Did they get anything, or expect anything? Was it philanthropic or was there an obligation?
  • Do you expect a ‘return on your investment’? What is your men-tee does not turn out?
  • What bad experiences have you had around mentoring?
  • Opportunities abound for informal influence – where are they? If you could see it more clearly you could see into the situation. What situations have you passed by? In everyday life how are you already mentoring other people? How could you tweak it?
understanding YOUR mentoring style
  Please print out the attached pdf to work out your mentoring style and how you might refine it. understanding_your_mentoring_style.pdf
COULD YOU BE A MENTOR?
It's definitely not for everyone. Think about these questions before you dive in:
  • Are you in interested in people?
  • Do you enjoy watching others grow and develop?
  • Are you a good listener?
  • Do you ask good, open questions that help people think?
  • Can you build rapport and trust?
  • Do you enjoy working with people one to one?
  • Can you allow people to work things out for themselves?
If you answer 'yes' to most of these questions, or are willing to learn, then we think you've got the raw material to do a good job as a mentor!
HOW DO I ASSESS MY EFFECTIVENESS AS A MENTOR?
Ask your mentee for feedback at the end of a session and whether he feels he is getting any value. 

A good question to ask is, "In order to have these sessions be really valuable for you, what should we do more of / less of / continue?"

You can also do a self-assessment:
  • Are we both keeping to our agreements? If not how can we clean this up?
  • Do I see behaviour change and action from my men-tee?
  • Is he keeping his promises and doing what he said?
  • Am I leading the process according to his pace and agenda, or mine?