Mentoring is all about relationship, but it also requires structure along the way.
Talking Points:
- We invite people into group or mentoring relationships by seeing and offering to help meet a need they have. We invest in them by finding, learning about, and exploring together topics relevant to their life in a simple, conversational style anyone can do. We empower mentees by showing them how to invite, invest in, and empower others. We all help each other.
- Relationship is crucial in mentoring, but so is structure. With our tools, structure should increase as you invite and invest and it should decrease as you move into the empowering phase of a mentoring relationship.
Discussion Questions:
- Initial reactions to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- Which do you think is the easiest of the three foundational mentoring principles: inviting, investing, or empowering? Which is the hardest for you? Why?
- If you’ve done mentoring or led a group, what are times you’ve seen that structure was necessary, but you didn’t have it? What about times you’ve seen structure actually get in the way of good mentoring?
- What are some clear goals you have for mentoring others? If you are or have been mentored, what were the goals for you as a mentee or group member?
- What would you say is the overall value of structure in a mentoring relationship?
- Is there a step you need to take based on today’s topic?
