Mentorship Code of Conduct
For Mentors
- In the Vault. Everything you discuss is confidential and in the mentor-mentee vault. This is vital to a successful mentorship relationship. Please assure your mentee that what they have shared is private and confidential, and remind them of this whenever you feel appropriate. Stick to your word on this - keep it in the vault, unless otherwise agreed (eg for the purpose of facilitating an introduction).
- Spend time getting to know your mentee. Their interests, dreams, aspirations, goals and be aware of real life issues they are currently facing in their business or business aspirations. Find out where they are at and where they have come from to be at this point in their business adventure.
- Be open and honest about your own journey. As part of this important step, be open to sharing your stories and your own journey. This will help you find your point of connection. Be an active listener and also attentive while you talk. See what issues your mentee focuses on or is most troubled by, or while you explain your journey, see what is resonating most with your mentee.
- Be an explorer. Explore the issue or issues. And as a mentor, don’t jump to solutions, but see how much time you can spend asking questions and unpacking the issue(s).
- How can you help? Once you feel you’ve fully explored the issue, see what you can do to help. Look for opportunities to not only give advice based on your practical experience, but think about if there are other ways you could help. Is there an opportunity to connect your mentee to someone in your networks that could also help with the issue? Or any resources or tools you could recommend? Are there particular resources listed in the topic area that you think the mentee could particularly gain from? Please make sure you follow through and do what you committed to do to help your mentee in their development.
- Be an accountability partner. Is there a way you could help your mentee decide on an action to take after your conversation to help address the issue? Are you able to be their accountability partner and get in touch after an agreed upon timeframe to see what steps they took, before moving on to the next topic?
- Proud, empowered, connected. Remember – mentoring actively supports mentees to be proud and confident in their identity, culture, and business journey. Do your best to leave your mentee feeling empowered and connected, and you will leave each mentorship session feeling the same way.
For Mentees
- Tell your mentor about yourself. Your interests, dreams, aspirations, goals and discuss the real life issues you are currently facing in your business or business aspirations. The more you tell your mentor about yourself, the more ways she’ll find avenues to connect with you and find opportunities to offer guidance.
- Be open and honest. Sometimes it is daunting to be open and honest when you are connecting with someone new. We all can feel shy talking about ourselves – but remember the mentoring relationship is about you and your mentor wants to be there to help and support you.
- Be receptive. As a mentee, be open to new ideas, networks, knowledge, skills, resources, feedback, advice etc. that your mentor shares with you.
- You get out, what you put in. The more you take up the opportunity to create a trusting relationship with your mentor, the more you can potentially learn and achieve. Do your homework. Make sure you follow through with the introductions, resources or commitments your mentor has directed you to, so you get the most out of the relationship and signal to your mentor that you are committed to learning and growing under their guidance.
- In the vault. Establish with your mentor if what you are telling them is in the vault and confidential, so that you can feel safe to disclose whatever it is you would like to discuss.
- Decide upon an action to take. Did your mentor offer some excellent advice that you would like to follow through on? Then take action, and make a commitment to let your mentor know when you have taken action and the result. Being accountable for this action or commitment will help you to ensure it gets done!