Mentoring Guidelines

January is National Mentoring Month. For mentoring to be successful, it is important for the mentor and mentee to have alignment in experience and a mentoring agreement with the following:

1 - GOALS of what you want to get out of the mentoring

2 - TIME FRAME, not to exceed one year, with your desired start and end dates

3 - DAY preferred to meet for mentoring for 30 minutes once a month

4 - LOGISTICS of mentoring meeting including your time and location (not too public) preferences (Skype is an option if in-person is not possible)

5 - MEETING RULES agreement, including being prepared for each meeting mentally and allowing adequate time to meet and extra time after each meeting to finish all issues; Rescheduling a meeting is allowed with at least one hour's notice if preparation is not possible

6 - MEETING FORMAT will be followed that notes are taken at every meeting on discussion of mentee issues and questions, as well as, what went well, what could be done better and what will continue to be done in the mentoring meetings

7 - CHECKPOINTS - agree to conduct at the third month meeting to verify that you are getting the process that you need/expected and at the sixth month meeting to verify if you are getting the results that you want.

8 - FORMAL WRAP-UP - give written agreement at the end of one year to determine if the mentoring relationship will continue or end

9 - CONFIDENTIALITY agreement that information shared during mentoring will be kept confidential unless permission is asked and agreed to be shared by mentor and mentee

10 - SIGNATURE will be given to a documented mentoring agreement by mentee, as completed by mentor, reflecting items 1-9 above provided by mentee and as mutually-modified

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.