So let's look at, you know, what is mentoring? There are so many different definitions of
mentoring and there isn't one definition and often, you know, it changes as well and so
I'm going to show you one definition and the thing I want to stress
about this is that it is all about mutual learning, that the mentor is going to get as
much out of the relationship as the mentee and I have many mentors come up to me and say,
you know, I actually feel so embarrassed because I feel as though I've got more out of the mentoring
relationship than my mentee. It's all about mutual learning and so also, if you are a mentee going
into a relationship, you can also ask your mentor, what would you like to learn from me?
And you may not think you've got anything to offer but you'll be surprised. You know, you may
have a, okay, maybe you've got an older mentor and they've got kids or, you know, children that
are your age and it's like, well, I'd like to know how to communicate better with my adult kids.
If you have got, you know, a younger mentee, you may also want to learn, you know,
some things that you don't know about them. So, you know, it's a two-way street, very important
and also, it's all about building trust. As I said, if you don't have the trust, you're not going to
get into the depth of the relationship that you need. Now, there's also many types of mentoring,
one-to-one group mentoring, one-to-many but I know with MentorCloud, a lot of the focus is on
one-to-one and really, where you're learning from a mentor who has got experience with the issue
that you are going to be dealing with. So, that's the main difference also between mentoring and
coaching. While the coach doesn't necessarily have to have the experience, they just follow
a process, a mentor usually has the experience with that issue. Right in the beginning, we need
to understand what our roles are, what is my role as a mentor, what is my role as a mentee and what
are the expectations. If this isn't clarified up front, it could end up with a breakdown in trust,
a breakdown in communication and they're going to be expectations that are not met. So, this is part
of your ground rules that you're going to set right in the beginning. This is part of the first
conversation that you will have with your mentor mentee. What is my role? What do I expect from you?
What is your role? What do you expect from me? Just have those conversations because it will really
make your whole journey so much easier.