Getting the most out of your mentorship: a mentor’s guide to success 

French writer Joseph Joubert famously said, “To teach is to learn twice.” I couldn’t agree more. Having worked in a multinational company for 16 years, I’ve been lucky enough to both learn from more senior team members, and be able to share my skills and knowledge with junior colleagues. As part of a mentorship programme within my company, I can honestly say that being a mentor myself is one of the most enriching experiences I’ve had in my career. 

Not only do you fully realize what you know by relaying it to somebody else, but there is so much to learn from experiencing the mentor-mentee relationship itself. Mentorship is a two-way street that can be incredibly fulfilling for both the teacher and the student, especially if following a few essential guidelines. 

First and foremost, I like to ensure our younger team members fully understand what the company does and the problems we solve for our clients. If this understanding isn’t firm, it can create an insecurity that spreads through all aspects of work life. However, there is an art to making this part feel like interesting research and not homework. 

In the past, my approach was to give a mentee documentation about our product suite and ask them to read it on their own, then come back to me with a list of questions. But I found that they didn’t have a lot of questions and probably didn’t even have the time to read the materials. Now, I dedicate some time during our first sessions to read the documents and discuss them together. I emphasize that no question is too big or too small – this gives the mentee more confidence to ask for information, and enables me to brush up on the business at the same time! 

I keep my approach to mentorship fresh and relevant by turning work into learning opportunities. My mentees will conduct client calls, either discussing a product or negotiating terms. These are great because they can be recorded. Together, we can then review the conversation and see how things could have been improved. 

It’s understandably very difficult to respond optimally when you’re new at something and engaging a client in real time. As long as the mentor approaches this exercise constructively, these debriefs can be a tremendous tool for learning. One way to take the pressure off is by sharing some less-successful experiences of your own and telling your mentee what you learned from them. 

Younger hires are often under-equipped with the soft skills they need to get the job done. For example, junior employees can have a tendency to get discouraged and give up responsibility when they encounter complicated problems. There can be the notion that somebody more experienced in the company should step in to fix it. 

I think that younger team members can really distinguish themselves if they develop a sense of project ownership early on in their careers. Therefore, I encourage them to stick with things when they encounter a problem. This doesn’t mean that they are on their own, but they should be generative and attempt to find the solutions or the right people to give them the answers they need. 

Another important soft skill is to intentionally manage your time and environment to increase efficiency. I like to share general tips on time management and productivity, for example prioritizing your tasks and avoiding distractions. But I also make it clear that everyone needs to experiment to find what works for them.