Public Speaking

It's likely that if your mentee has connected and reached out to you for support with public speaking, that they have seen or know that public speaking is something you are good at!

However it's not always easy to mentor someone on public speaking, an act which ironically is a very personal challenge for most people. The courage, expectation, delivery and poise required to get a message across with effective public communication is one of the biggest challenges that people face in their professional life.

A fear of public speaking is generally accepted to be one of people's top fears, often topping a ear of dying, or spiders! A YouGov survey in 2017 found that public speaking to some degree impacts 56% of us.

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There's lots of useful information out there on how to help with a fear of public speaking, and your own experience as a mentor will certainly be beneficial to talk through with your mentee.

But as an alternative resource, we took a look at a presentation that we think really nails it when it comes to public speaking. Sending this, or something similar for your mentee to view before you open the discussion should ensure you can steer the conversation and offer tangible guidance.

South China Morning Post's CEO, Gary Liu delivers this 12-minute talk on how the internet is changing China. As MenteeMe is for digital tech professionals we thought you might also enjoy the content!

Here are some points to discuss with your mentee:

  • The talk opens with statement, which unravels into a story and keeps the audience wanting to hear more

  • The presenter knows his subject and is able to quote stats freely without hesititation

  • There is an interesting use of pauses. The talk ebbs and flows in speed, to keep your attention

  • The starting point is about human connection, so although there are facts interspersed we want to hear more about the family holiday

  • There aren't any ‘lol’ moments, and the presenter isn't trying to be a comedian. The talk is engaging and energetic without having to be super fast-paced and bounce all over the stage

  • There is a connection to the presenter, as he offers his own experience and point of view throughout, not just building a connection with the audience but adding to his credibility of the subject

  • He doesn't take ages to drop in stats or explain them (if you have to explain a graph in detail it isn't doing what it should be doing!)

  • There are short stories of 'real people' to bring to life and explain certain points

  • He hasn't swallowed a dictionary! The choice of language is deliberate and accessible

  • His body language is authoritative, with some movement and gestures. These are calm and exhibit and air of confidence on the stage

TED is one of the best place to direct mentees to who want to improve their public speaking, because it allows them to see the vast breadth of speaker styles.

Being genuine and natural in speaking style is crucial, and this could be a great way to get your mentee to focus on how they present.

The MenteeMe Team

Effective Stress Management

Managing stress is no less important or passive than managing people, managing budgets or managing a sales pipeline. Stress, and a person’s reaction to a stressful situation will vary greatly from one individual to another, and will change based on experience and active management.

If your mentee has requested support to help them with effective stress management you are likely to discuss resilience.

Resilience was once considered a soft skill that didn’t feature in the workplace, but as more research is undertaken into what makes an effective leader resilience is now a key consideration for everyone in a professional environment.

What does resilience mean?

The dictionary definition of resilience is “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape”.

Resilient people adapt well to stressful conditions and life-changing situations. It doesn’t mean they don’t experience negativity or emotional stress but that they take action and have the right attitude to cope with the event, they practice resilience and adapt.

Resilience is an important part of effective working and ultimately, career progression. Everyone will experience times of high stress and tough situations. How people deal with these is very important for career and personal development.

 

What are the ten characteristics of resilient people?

 

1.     Accept help when they need it

2.     Adapt to change

3.     Learn how to cope with setbacks and disappointments

4.     Focus on finding ways to get around problems, rather than on the problems themselves

5.     Make mistakes and then learn from them

6.     Learn to accept constructive criticism

7.     Make the most of their strengths

8.     Recognise their weaknesses

9.     Recover from failure and rejection

10.  See the bigger picture in challenging situations

 

Developing resilience

 How can you advise your mentee to develop their stress management?

Practice - Resilience is a skill, which means it can be learnt.

Awareness - Resilience requires a person to be aware of how they come across to other people, (what people feel when they think of you and most importantly how you feel about your self?)

Controlling Emotion – How do emotions effect behaviour in situations? Discussing appropriate self-awareness will help your mentee. Do they take things to heart, or are they able to shrug off stressful situations?

Reputation - How a person responds to situations in their job will impact how people view them in the future

Job Satisfaction - Ultimately, how your mentee deals with situations will also make them happier in their job

 

How to Improve Resilience

Be decisive - Often people look to their manager for the answer and inherently struggle to be decisive. Building your mentee’s confidence to be decisive will help them manage stressful situations.

Headspace - Think about discussing that your mentee doesn’t have to be available all the time, if they need a moment to think and make the right decision do that (go for a walk around the block!)

Keep moving on - It’s really important to encourage your mentee to think about the issue or situation that is causing them stress, then try to stop thinking about it: Put it to bed and move on, don’t let it cloud their confidence in the future. Think of it as a learning experience.

Take risks - Take risks and own the responsibility: Success is often dependant on a person’s capacity to take risks and manage fear. Resilient behaviour requires us to take action in the face of this fear.

Escalate - Manage upwards when necessary 

Manage emotion - Emotions are great to show that we care and are passionate about our jobs, but they can be dangerous if used as the main driving force for professional actions.

Reflect - Take time to look at the good and the bad afterwards, For example, ‘I made a fool of myself by crying in front of my team’ versus, ‘I am only human, and at least the team knows that I care and am comfortable with my emotions.’ It isn’t about pretending that everything is wonderful, it’s about developing a more balanced perspective of situations.

 

What might you do to improve the resilience of your employees?

Perhaps your mentee manages other people, and to them effective stress management is about supporting others to manage stress. Here are some examples of what they may do to support those they manage:

  1. Focus on positives and give praise 

  2. Be assertive

  3. Encourage breaks

  4. Spot the triggers and effects of stress

  5. Identify what contributes to burnout

  6. Create an action plan for building physical, mental and emotional resilience

 

Other resources for further reading

The MenteeMe Team

Managing Senior People

Has your mentee asked for support and advice on managing senior people?

We love this great infographic from Experteer on Training For Senior Leadership.

It's a bite-sized way to discuss the traits of a senior leader, to help your mentee ensure they are stepping up and effectively managing senior people. You may want to start asking them to self-evaluate how they feel about these traits, do they exhibit them regularly? Do they find them easy?

Download the infographic.

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Business Writing

People write at work all the time. Emails, proposals, memos, presentations. The workplaces constant flow of information exchange is driven more than ever before by the written word. 

Yet writing for business is a very specialised skill that we are not often formally taught. 

If you are going to help somebody improve their written communication at work, here are some tips taken from the Harvard Business School’s Guide To Better Business Writing. 

 

Think Before Writing 

Before anybody puts pen to paper or hands to keyboard, they must consider what you want to say. We have all been told to “take 10 minutes” when about to craft an emotionally charged communication at work. But the same level of thought should go into all communication. 

Most people actually think as they are writing which makes their writing less structured and decisive. 

People should ask themselves: What should my audience know or think after reading this email, proposal, or report? If the answer isn’t immediately clear, then a step back to collect thoughts is definitely required. 

 

Be Direct 
 

Business people are normally time-poor and are reading things surrounded by lots of other pressures and demands. It’s so important in business writing to make a point as clearly and directly as possible. 

Many people find that the writing style and structure they developed in school does not work as well in the business world.  

By succinctly presenting a main idea first, you save your reader time and sharpen your argument before diving into the bulk of writing, such as additional detail to a commercial proposal. When writing longer memos and proposals, the key issue, proposal or solution should be stated in no more than 150 words at the top of the first page. This kind of summarising up-front helps a time-pressured colleague or client digest what you are saying quickly and clearly. 

 

Cut The Fat 
 

People should be always be encouraged to read any business communication back after they have written it, thinking particularly about unnecessary words or sentences. When most people read their work back they are looking for errors, but verbosity should be uppermost in peoples minds. 

The minute readers feel that a piece of writing is overly verbose they start tuning out. Focus specifically on shortening prepositions (point of view becomes viewpoint); replacing –ion words with action verbs (provided protection to becomes protected); and swapping is, are, was and were with stronger verbs (indicates rather than is indicative of). 

 

Avoid Jargon  


Business writing is full of industry-specific buzzwords and acronyms. And while these terms are sometimes unavoidable and can occasionally be helpful as shorthand, they often indicate lazy or cluttered thinking. Throw in too many, and a reader will assume the writer is on autopilot — or worse, does not understand what they are saying.  

In the workplace people should be encouraged to create a buzzword blacklist – a list of words they always look to avoid in business writing. 

Use of grandiose language should also be discouraged. Writers often mistakenly believe using a big word when a simple one will do is a sign of intelligence, but research has shown that most readers find over the top language patronising. 

 

Practice Every Day 
 

Writing is a skill and skills improve with practice. 

Somebody that is looking to improve their business writing should be encouraged to read well-written material every day, and be attentive to word choice, sentence structure, and flow. The Wall St Journal for Financial Times is a great place to start, while Fowler’s Modern English Usage is a great reference point for correct phraseology.  

It’s also vitally important that somebody looking to improve their business writing builds time into their schedule, for example when considering a deadline for returning a proposal to a client, to proof-read their work. 

 

Principles to Remember 

Here are some of the key points to remember when mentoring somebody on their business writing: 

Do: 

  • Plan out what to say to make writing more direct and effective. 

  • Use words sparingly and keep sentences short and to the point. 

  • Avoid jargon and “fancy” words. Strive for clarity. 

 

Don’t: 

  • Allow the person to believe they “can’t write”. Anyone can become a better writer with practice. 

  • Believe that a first draft is perfect, or even passable. Every document can be improved. 

  • Bury the most important points. Present the main point of the email, document, proposal as soon as possible. 

Improve Peer Relationships

Relationships with peers and colleagues is one of the most important factors to both job satisfaction and workplace happiness. It’s also one of the most complex and difficult topics in the workplace.

If your mentee has asked for support with improving their peer relationships there’s likely to be a specific incident or reason, which we recommend you take some time to discuss. You may also want to delve into EQ tests and talk about self-awareness, to ascertain the reason your mentee feels they want to improve in this area.

TIP! Ensure the conversations with your mentee remain professional, and don’t spiral into gossip.

We love this Mind Tools article, with some useful advice on how to improve business relationships. There are nine actions you can discuss with your mentee, perhaps asking them to come up with a behavioural change plan.

Help With The Next Career Step

A Six-Step Plan To Make The Next Career Step 

 

Knowing when it’s time to take the next step in a career is normally a very personal decision. As a mentor, it can be hard to adequately advise somebody that they are ‘ready’ for the next move, particularly if you don’t know the person and have never worked with them. 

This six step plan to help people decide about their next career move was devised by career coach Barbara Sher, author of best-selling book Wishcraft: How To Get What You Really Want and appeared on Fast Company. 

 

Step 1: Plan Your Ideal Day 

People planning their next career move should hold off on the big-picture brainstorming for a while. When making immediate term decisions about career progression, people need to think simply and clearly. A good exercise is to ask them what their ideal days would look like if they had complete control over them? Ask these key questions: 

  • How would the person’s days be structured? 

  • How would the day’s activities unfold? 

  • What would they be doing for work? 

  • Where would they be doing it? 

  • What kind of people would they be working with? 

Sometimes, if people are burned out, it may take a little practice fantasising about pleasurable life experiences like swimming pools and horseback riding before they feel like thinking about ideal work situations. 

 

Step 2: Start Giving Things “Happiness Rankings” 

Before making any career decision, particularly how to take that all important next step, a mindfulness exercise will help a person put their career in perspective. Use a 1 (awful) to 10 (heavenly) scale to give actions, people, and things in life a happiness ranking. 

The person should think about: 

  • What they are doing in work 

  • Family and relationships 

  • Colleagues 

  • Hobbies 

Give each thing a H-ranking. Soon, the person will be more in tune with the areas of their life that are satisfying, and those that make them unhappy. 

Barbra Sher says: “Any happiness level ranking that is a 7 or above is telling you something. And what it’s telling you isn’t frivolous, it’s scientific data,” she says. 

 

Step 3: Pay Attention To What You Dislike, Too 

There are lessons to be learned from what people don’t like about their day-to-day, says Pamela Mitchell, founder and CEO of The Reinvention Institute, a career transition training and consulting firm, and author of The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention: Essential Survival Skills for Any Economy. 

Mitchell says that observing what people don’t like about certain jobs or situations can help direct them to a new and better path for their careers – be that progression in their current company/field or on to something new. Even if a person is generally very happy in their career, focusing on a dislike will help them to understand a route they need to avoid. 

 

Step 4: Think Like A Detective 

People should treat their search for the next step in their careers like detectives on a crime drama, says career consultant Nicholas Lore, founder of career consulting firm The Rockport Institute. When a detective shows up to investigate a situation, they look for clues about what fits. 

People need to think carefully about their natural talents, their personality traits, the kinds of functions that they won’t get tired of doing all day, or a set of functions that they could do throughout the day. 

Most importantly, people need to think analytically about the relationship between the rewards that one gets at work and their own values. The important message here is for people to collect the data and start piecing together the picture that emerges from those details. A picture of themselves and what they want from their next move. 

 

Step 5: Forget Forever—Focus On The Next Five Years 

Just because people are looking to make a transition doesn’t mean that it will be a forever change. Thinking that the next step in a person’s career represents a life defining moment can cause huge levels of anxiety and over-analysis. 

Instead, people need to be encouraged to look at where they would like to be in five to seven years (for an employee that has been in work for less than 10 years). 

Of course, daydreaming the big picture is fun and unavoidable for most of us. But having a more finite window helps people to plan specific achievable goals that will help them move forward effectively. Encourage people to plan for the short-to-medium term. 

 

Step 6: Create A Transition Plan 

As people’s picture of what comes next becomes clearer, it is important to encourage them to treat it with a level of reflection and distance that enables them to make a balanced decision. 

People should be encouraged to treat the next step of their career like a business plan. Think about how they will repackage themselves in a new role and what preparation they will need to do in order to take the next step and feel as though they are ready for it.  

Encourage the person to create a list of tasks and a timeline for their next career move. How will they market themselves to get to where you want to go? What are the financial considerations? What obstacles do you face and how will you overcome them? Do they have the required skills and experience, and if not how can they gain those skills? And most importantly is the next step in line with their goals and motivations? 

This may sound a little over-analytical for a next career step that should be aspirational. But dreams and aspirations come more easily to most humans than planning, clarity and objective decision making. These steps aim to redress that balance so you as a mentor can help somebody make an objective decision about their next career step.

Inspirational Leadership

Does your mentee want to be inspired?

Being inspired by senior professionals isn’t always as easy as it sounds. And as a mentor it’s probably something you think about. But how to inspire others and be considered a great leader isn’t easy.

One of the most interesting TED talks that the team at MenteeMe have enjoyed is by Simon Sinek. Sinek talks about how great leaders inspire others, by conveying purpose.

Try sharing this video with your mentee and considering asking them which leaders they are inspired by and why.

Career Change Advice

Lots of people feel they're in the wrong job, as many as three quarters of the UK workforce in fact. Therefore it may not come as a surprise if some conversations you may have on MenteeMe circle around whether an individual is in the 'right' job.

Emma Kennedy talks about the need to help people find roles suitable to them in these two BBC podcasts.

The first, Square Pegs in Round Holes, considers how individuals need better access to make career choices. While the second, Reinventing the Workplace, considers how employers and the workplace needs to change.

A worthy place to initially send mentees who might be asking you for advice on this very issue.

 

The MenteeMe Team

Networking Skills

At MenteeMe we're big fans of Celeste Headlee's TED Talk on how to have better conversations.

Her ten tips are imperative when thinking about how to network effectively.

When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations - and that most of us don't converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening.

 

The MenteeMe Team

Management Advice - Tips to be a better manager

This excellent handout details '18 Warning Signs You Need To Be A Better Manager',  first produced by Saba based on an original article by Jacquelyn Smith, Business Insider.

It's a perfect resource to send to any mentees who has connected with you for management advice!

Download the resource here

Consider asking your mentee to consider how many of these attributes might resonate with them, it'll be a great way to increase personal awareness!

 

The MenteeMe Team

Management Advice - What kind of Manager are you?

There's no right of wrong when it comes to management style, but the best managers are those that understand their strengths and challenges.

To help identify your personal management style download and fill in this questionnaire. 

There is no right or wrong answer. Just choose the answer that seems to most suit your natural behaviour. It’s important that you are honest, and do not give the answer that you think will reflect the best on you! 

This questionnaire identifies three main types of manager:

 

Directive Management Style

1. In challenging situations, you feel most comfortable working from clear guidelines.

2. In meetings, you take charge early and become anxious to get down to business.

3. You find it easy to assign tasks, provide schedules, and monitor progress.

4. You may tend to become impatient when subordinates want to prolong a discussion. You tend to be more concerned with getting the job done than you are with meeting interpersonal needs.

5. In situations in which you have complete control you tend to relax more, assume an easy-going manner, and become more patient and considerate.

 

Consultive Management Style

1. The primary goal is to have good interpersonal relations with others-even at the sacrifice of the goal.

2. You tend to be very sensitive to the individual members of the group and are especially concerned with their feelings.

3. In a meeting you tend to encourage the participation of various members of the group.

4. In high stress situations you tend to find it more difficult to reach the goal.

5. You function best in moderate control situations where you are able to deal with interpersonal relations and deal effectively with difficult subordinates.

 

Free-Rein Management Style

1. In challenging situations, you allow the greatest freedom to your staff.

2. You can become overly tolerant of non-productive members of your team.

3. Your “best” day is one in which you have spent the majority of your time working on projects and administrative functions.

4. You schedule meetings, but may tend to have a difficult time bringing the discussion to any definitive conclusion or implementation plan.

5. You tend to function best with subordinates who enjoy working on their own and need little day-to-day supervision from you.

 

The MenteeMe Team
 

People Management - 5 Things that new managers should focus on first​

If your mentee is managing others for the first time, and would like support on how to be a good manager here are five areas you can discuss with them to help them establish themselves and think about their approach.

 

1. Establish a leadership philosophy

The bedrock of great leadership and management is a strong philosophy that you can believe in. Do you feel excited and empowered because you now have the positional authority to tell other people what to do — or are you more excited by the prospect of helping others to thrive, grow and maybe reach the same level as you?

Tom Peters: Real leadership said great leadership is about producing other leaders. A great leader, Peters said, is someone committed to bringing others along. Having solid and defined leadership values will get other people to buy into your management. Those values will also guide your decision making and strategy.

 

2. Focus on the day-to-day practicalities of good management

The long-term goal of successful management is to build a great team around you to create the next generation of leaders who can — just possibly — surpass your own performance. Good leaders are also good mentors. 

But the day job of management involves task management, hitting targets, allocating limited resources and managing internal challenges. The big picture is always important, but new managers/leaders should ensure at least 75% of their time is being invested in the daily challenges of doing their job as oppose to idealising.

You can’t be a great manager, without being great at your job.

 

3. Be clear about your communication and your top priorities

Your communication skills will be tested like never before in your first managerial role. During meetings, be as clear as possible about your priorities by asking yourself: Is this meeting intended to inform, get input, or get approval? (By stating that right up front, you’ll help others understand the context.) 

As often as possible during interactions with your team, take advantage of the opportunity to clarify your overarching purpose and which of your top priorities are required to fulfil that purpose. Be consistent about your purpose and your priorities. 

Clear communication with your team members will be vital. Always ensure you ask yourself when communicating (both written and spoken) is this message clear, concise and easy to interpret?

 

4. Set common standards and stick to them

Much can be solved and accomplished if people agree on and practice a set of common standards. 

Your values define the standards you keep. Partly your standards should be defined by your leadership values. It’s important you maintain these standards consistently. If ‘compassionate’ management is a key value, then this must be demonstrated in an unbiased why in all your team interactions.

Standards also relate to the rules, structures and processes you choose to implement. Be clear about what you expect from people, and ensure your expectations are fair and consistently implemented.

 

5. Remember that it’s okay to be scared and vulnerable

So much of entrepreneurship, management, and leadership involves walking a tightrope between vulnerability and conviction. None of us can ever be completely confident that we’re 100% on the right track, yet as a manager you will be required to inspire confidence and deliver decisions. As a manger/leader people will look to you ‘to make the call’. 

this does not mean you need to soak up an unending torrent of self-doubt because you aren’t totally sure.

For new leaders and managers, giving team members the confidence that decisions are being made in a balanced, thoughtful way is vital. Being decisive is important. But admitting to yourself, and sometimes others, that you aren’t totally sure, are taking an educated guess and aren’t a clairvoyant that gets everything right does not make you bad at your job. Actually it makes you better. 

 

The MenteeMe Team

Professionalism at work​

2015 Professionalism In The Workplace Study

Source: CPE 2015 National Professionalism Survey

Headlines

51% of HR Executives/Managers believe the sense of entitlement among employees is increasing

49% of workers say excessive use of social media is the biggest technology barrier to workplace professionalism 

37% of people said ‘being focused’ was the most important attribute in professional people

59% of people said ‘being disrespectful’ was the most obvious example of unprofessional behaviour at work

The Meaning Of Professionalism At Work

Professionalism is a component of the concept of work ethic, which describes how a person comes to work and conducts themselves on the job. Here are some ways to exemplify professionalism on the job.

 

Be Punctual - Being on time is one of the most fundamental qualities of professionalism. A professional person is punctual to appointments, meets deadlines and delivers work on time

Be Accountable - Someone with a high degree of professionalism takes responsibility for their work assignments, their actions and any problems that arise resulting from their work

Be Organised - Organisation helps a professional person do their job effective and efficiently. Tidy workspaces, calendar maintenance and preparedness are all good examples

Be Consistent - When someone has a strong work ethic, they are diligent in making sure work gets done and is done properly. This means that work is consistently done well and efficiently executed

Be Presentable - While quite subjective, most studies still tell us that maintaining a presentable appearance with good personal hygiene is an important indicator of workplace professionalism

Be Kind - People that demonstrate humility, kindness and helpfulness are regarded as more professional. Professional people work well with others to achieve a common goal

The 10 Traits Of Professional People

 

1. Appearance. A professional is neat in appearance. Be sure to meet or even exceed the requirements of your company's dress code

2. Demeanour. Your demeanour should be confident but not arrogant. Be polite whether you're interacting with customers, superiors or co-workers

3. Reliable. You should be counted on to get the job done in a timely manner. Responding promptly and follow through on promises and commitments

4. Competence. Professionals strive to become experts in their field. Credibility is vital. Never stop learning and always be open to new ideas

5. Ethics. Ethical behaviour is important in all industries. Adhere to your industry’s code of conduct and also your personal standards

6. Poise. Professional people hold their poise even when facing a difficult situation. Do not replicate poor behaviour and always treat people with respect

7. Etiquette. The way you engage with clients/ colleagues on the phone or on social media should be courteous. Be respectful to your organisation and competitors

8. Altruistic. We all want success, but things don’t always go our way. Handle set-backs tactfully, be positive and don’t apportion blame

9. Accountable. Professionals are accountable for their actions at all times. If you make a mistake, own up to it and work/collaborate to resolve it

10. Positive. Our personalities are different, but we should all approach work situations with positive intent. Professional people are constructive, not critical

Just Chew The Fat!

This is quite literally our favourite of all the requests we see in MenteeMe – people that just want to chew the fat! 

MenteeMe has bene designed to facilitate new relationships, and sometimes to build those relationships you just want to have a good natter with someone else and hear what they have to say. 

If your mentee has selected this, you can be sure they’re an inquisitive soul.  

How might you start to offer mentorship in this area? Well, we suggest that you meet face to face (as long as you feel comfortable with that). Before meeting face to face use the chat functionality to get some more background on what they do for their job, what their role entails, and perhaps ask them what their favourite thing is about their work?! 

 

The MenteeMe Team

Career Development Advice - A Practical Exercise

This exercise could be used to discuss with your mentee their longer-term career goals and plan how they may achieve those goals. It works best as a face to face exercise, but could be managed remotely. 

Prior to meeting your mentee ask them to consider answering the question ‘what do they want to be’.  This exercise isn’t about what their next promotion is, but involves a longer-term view of the career goal that someone aims to achieve.  It can be completely open so long as it’s within the realms of reality.  As an example, ‘a CEO’ is realistic, ‘a princess married to Prince Harry’, maybe less so. Finally, it can be totally unrelated to the mentee’s current role, ‘to own a wedding cake business’ or ‘to buy, do up and rent out properties’ or even ‘to have earned enough money to retire and live in Thailand by the time I’m 45’ could all be the answers! 

Additionally, ask the mentee to spend time thinking about the positive attributes or successes they’ve achieved recently, as well as some of the difficulties and challenges they’ve faced. 

When you conduct the session ask them the question again and get them to explain what they want to be. The discussion should help explain why they want this, where the desire came from and what it really means.   

Once you both have this clear and defined you can get the exercise going! Ask your mentee to write out all the successful attributes they have and successes they’ve achieved that are helping them to eventually achieve the ‘thing they want to be’. Repeat the exercise but for the challenges. Then take some time to discuss these challenges, aiming to end up with a list of goals or solutions to overcome each challenge. 

The idea behind this exercise is to encourage your mentee to think beyond their next career step and how short-term motivations can feed into longer term plans.   

The MenteeMe Team

Business Trends and Insights 

Your mentee may have indicated in their profile that they would like to be mentored on “Business Trends and Insights”. 

To help you here are a few suggestions: 

- Are you both part of the same industry? If so what does the mentee already do to keep up to date on developments within that industry?  

- Share any websites that you look at to get your information from and tell them why you look at those particular sites 

- Perhaps think about picking out one key issue that you think is currently impacting your business (or another example business you might want to talk about). Give your opinion and thoughts on the issue. 

 

The MenteeMe Team

Building Work/Life Balance 

If your mentee has highlighted that they wish to receive advice on building a work/life balance here are some useful questions and points to discuss with them. 

Work / life balance is actually very tricky to define because it is the product of both internal and external factors and differs for everyone. The ‘balance’ is subjective, but is caused by an amalgamation of: 

  • What work your company expects of you 

  • How quickly / easy you find it to do tasks and carry out your job 

  • How motivated you are in your work 

  • How resilient you are to stress

  • What commitments you have in your home life

  • The hours in the day verses the number of responsibilities you have

 

Here are a few topics you might consider discussing:

The idea of balance. This is a fluid concept, and changes all the time. The balance will tilt based on what a person has going on. The first step here might be to consider using a time calculator to assess what time and responsibilities the mentee has. 

Decide on the ideal balance. To some extent work/life balance is a conscious decision. For some work is a very fulfilling and important part of who they are. Asking the mentee to think about what % of their life they would like to spend working verses not working could help to assess the value they place upon work. 

Consider talking about communication. If the mentee feels they are unhappy with the balance they have, are they able to communicate this to others? You might want to talk about communicating in two ways:  

  1. To family, friends and loved ones – to ensure that others understand and are willing to compromise the time a person may decide to dedicate to work and why work is important to the them

  2. To an employer – particularly if there are issues with a balance that doesn’t feel comfortable or is causing stress 

Stress from imbalance. If the mentee feels they spend too long working you may wish to discuss how they might be proactive in this instance. How would they raise this with their manager? 

 

Here are some small tips to discuss with your mentee: 

  • Looking at your phone in bed (before going to sleep, or as soon as you wake up)

  • Turning emails off when on holiday

  • Using out of office replies

  • Not looking at work emails on a night out

 

And finally, here is an article that you may find useful to share with your mentee: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahlee/2014/10/20/6-tips-for-better-work-life-balance/#267ec9cd29ff 

 

The MenteeMe Team

10 Questions to ask your mentor

Got the conversation started with your first mentor? What next?

Try asking some questions to build that connection. Here at MenteeMe we have created some questions that we know will get your mentor talking!

1.     What kind of manager are you?

2.     What has been your greatest career achievement so far?

3.     What are you reading about at the moment?

4.     What is your greatest work fear or concern?

5.     What’s the most enjoyable part of your job?

6.     What is the one thing you’d fix in your industry if you had a magic wand?

7.     Are there any common assumptions in your industry you think need challenging?

8.     Who has been your greatest inspiration?

9.     Can you recommend me one thing to read or watch?

 

The MenteeMe Team

How to proactively reach out to mentors

Your career development belongs to no one else but you. Carpe Diem!

Here are our 5 tips to get started.

Tip #1

MenteeMe matches you with mentors based on what you want to learn. Check out your Recommended Matches and when you find a mentor you want to connect with kick-off that relationship by Requesting Mentorship.

Tip #2

Once your mentor accepts your request we suggest you start conversation in the app by introducing yourself.

Tip #3

Tell them what you want to get from the connection. Is there a specific topic you want advice on, or are you looking for a more general ongoing conversation?

Tip #4

You can have more than one mentor at a time, but be realistic with how much time you have and how much development you can cope with!

Tip #5

Make a good impression. Mentors give up their time and share their expertise, they’re going to be good people to have on your side for the future!

 

The MenteeMe Team