Get Ahead in Your Career: How to be a Great Mentee

Finding a great mentor will boost your confidence, increase career opportunities, and accelerate your personal development.

It is important when you find your mentor to be an excellent ‘mentee’.

Here are strategies to assist you:

Create agreed guidelines

Establish an agreement between both parties of the responsibilities and commitments of both parties.

Schedule for Six months

This initial period gives you both an agreed timeframe to achieve effective communication and sharing of experience and creates a sense of importance to honor all meetings and deliverables you agree to be accountable for.

Meet monthly

Schedule regular meetings each month for up to one hour. As the mentee, you fit into your mentor’s schedule and you initiate these connections. Most likely you have chosen a mentor with a busy personal and professional life, so make it easy for them to connect with you.

Create an agenda for your monthly meeting

Advise your mentor what you would like to discuss, what challenges you are facing, and any questions you have. To assist you to develop this agenda you may like to keep the list ongoing through the month so you are very prepared for your meeting. Share this agenda in advance if possible so your mentor can come to the meeting with suggestions for you.

If can’t meet in person, book a video call

You don’t need to meet face to face (especially if your mentor is busy and not located in the same area as you). Video allows you to pay close attention, they can see your enthusiasm and engagement and it’s a greater way to connect.

Meet in a location that suits your mentor

Find locations they enjoy being in i.e. the favorite coffee shop, airport lounges, or the beach. Make an effort to drive or commute to the location that fits in with their schedule if you are meeting in person. Always arrive early.

Complete any homework and tasks between appointments they assign to you

Your mentor might share activities to try, books to read, or challenges for the next month. Always complete these tasks and report back on your success. Don’t waste your mentor’s time or advice.

Promote your mentor to others

If you know of businesses or opportunities for your mentor, always share with others about their skills, achievements, and success. They will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Thank your mentor with the gift of service

Could you assist them with a project, help in their business unit, drive them to an event, or take them to the airport? Being a good mentee is also about serving your mentor and creating opportunities to understand their experience- some of my best learnings were driving my mentor to the airport or flying to an event and having uninterrupted time together on a flight (yep, I have flown to locations with my mentors to learn from them).

Do your homework on your mentor

Find out what they like to listen to, what books they enjoy reading, movies they enjoy, family details. This helps you pay attention, understand them, respond, and thank them in ways that are important to them.

Maintain confidentiality

Keep all relevant discussions between you and your mentor private. Never disclose your discussions.

Make time in time

Find opportunities to support your mentor and debrief conversations. If they are driving for long periods of time, keep them company (either face to face or on the phone), if they are flying for the day, go with them and use the uninterrupted time on the plane to gain wisdom and assistance. Suggest you do a ‘walk and talk’ and get your workout in while connecting. I once attended a haircut with one of my mentors as it was the only time they had in their calendar – I will never forget his advice on that day.

Avoid contacting your mentor outside of agreed times

If you both agree you will meet once a month, save all of your discussions for this monthly meeting. If you need to contact them try messaging or email so you don’t interrupt their daily activities.

Try to outdo your mentor

Learn from their experiences, view their templates but always try and develop your own work to be even better than theirs. If you are successful, you could share your new templates or ideas with them so you can add value to their business by improving on their ideas or systems.

Never ask your mentor “What can I do for you?”

Always be creative, find ways to assist them without being asked. Offer to support an activity in their office, offer to pick them up from the airport instead of them taking a Uber, offer to help recruit team members for their business – find ways to help them without expecting anything in return.

When I wanted to become a professional speaker I sought out the most talented Australian speaker I could find, Matt Church. He was an accomplished, fantastic presenter who had won many client and industry awards and ran a profitable speaking business. I asked him to mentor me and for 12 months I followed him everywhere, yep, client meetings, sold books for him at the back of the room when he presented, helped him on projects, worked in his office, paid for interstate flights to get uninterrupted discussions during travel time. Spending 12 months with Matt accelerated my speaking career in an astronomical way, helped me form valuable relationships, and also lead to my next exciting career move, as a dedicated mentee and would do anything to serve and learn.

When you invest your time in being a committed mentee you will be rewarded with accelerated experiences from your mentor.

You will avoid mistakes they may have made, learn about the industry, meet great people, form valuable relationships, and then be able to mentor someone in your future.

This advice is particularly important if your mentor is doing this complimentary.

If you want to know more about Neen’s mentoring program this year, click here