A Recipe for a Successful Mentoring Relationship

Were there challenges to any of the mentoring relationships that you’ve had that would be very illustrative to others who are trying to form mentoring relationships? What would you say are the secrets to building a good mentoring ship?

So I really believe that mentoring relationships are 50% chemistry. Sometimes it just won’t work. And it’s not because there aren’t good people or they don’t have wonderful things to share going both ways. And that’s another point, is that I think it’s really important to view those types of relationships as two-way, rather than just a teacher and a student, so to speak. But I think just knowing that if a relationship doesn’t work out, that’s okay. That isn’t a failure on either person’s part.
But the other thing is it’s really important for the mentee to really own the relationship. I think sometimes mentees, they’re a little hesitant. Either they’re worried that their mentor is busy, so they don’t want to take up too much time, or they don’t put enough thought into what they want to get out of the experience.
And that doesn’t really work. I think the best relationships have been when the mentee really takes the initiative to ask what’s the right cadence? Here are the things I’d like to achieve. I’d love to hear about these particular topics. So that, for me, is what has worked best in a lot of my relationships with mentors.