How do you benefit most from your role as the mentee?
As in any other partnership, the success of the relationship is based on equal contributions of partners, the mentee and mentor. Your role, as the mentee, is broken into three dimensions:
- Personal
- Relational
- Professional
You should be honest, reliable, and courageous; you should always respect your mentor. You should be proactive; you should initiate meetings, identify your strengths, weaknesses, and career goals, and the purpose of the meeting. As the mentee, you should be able to take appropriate critiques and work to effect change in order to achieve your goals. You should have a true passion to succeed in your career.
What are your expectations from the mentor?
Similarly, the role of mentor is broken into three dimensions:
- Personal
- Relational
- Professional
Your mentor should be altruistic, with the best interest of you, the mentee, always on the forefront of the relationship; they should be honest, open, trustworthy, and nonjudgmental. The relationship should be based on developing your strengths and achieving your goals, not the goals of your mentor. Also, given your mentor’s seniority, they should offer their knowledge, learned with experience, and their influence, earned over time, to you.