HOW TO SELECT YOUR PERFECT MENTOR
There are many things to consider when selecting your mentor. Compatibility may need to be professional as well as personal, to ensure comfort and the best working relationship.
Mentees have full control when selecting their mentor through mytopmentor.com. By being able to filter through our database of mentors by location and areas of specialism, mentees are able to select the best fit for what they require from their mentoring journey.
Read on for a few tips on what to look for when selecting your perfect mentor:
1. Determine what your goals are
The first step for a mentee will always be to determine your goals and expectations. By aligning what you want to achieve and receive from your mentor, you are able to better find a mentor to match your needs and ensure you get the best out of your relationship with them.
By determining your own expectations, you will have a clearer idea of what you want to work on, how much time you’d want to commit to and how much time you’d want from your mentor.
2. Find someone who meets your needs
As you will be in constant communication with your mentor, it is important to find someone who is able to meet your communication needs. If your preference is face-to-face mentoring, you want to ensure that your mentor is able to commit to meeting you, with the frequency of meetings that is agreed upon by you both. As well as this, if you are meeting face to face, you want to ensure that both of you are able to travel to the agreed upon location, especially if you will be having regular meetings.
In the case of online mentoring, your mentor should be available at the times you agreed. For example, if you would prefer daily contact, a mentor who is listed as only available on weekends would not be a good match.
3. Compatibility & contrast
Compatibility is perhaps the most important thing in a mentoring partnership, as it is in any partnership. You want your mentor to have similar values, personality and attributes as you. This will strengthen your relationship and form the best mentor-mentee fit.
As well as this, you want a healthy level of contract from your mentor, so that they are able to see things in a way that perhaps you cannot, whilst also being comfortable enough to point this out to you and challenge you in situations.