Tips & tricks … Maintaining a successful mentoring relationship

18 Aug 2021
  • What our mentors & mentees say about this program?
  • Building purposeful relationships starts with trust and building trust relies on being able to communicate effectively 
  • Successful mentor-mentee relationships should be fulfilling and beneficial for all involved
  • Use these ten tips for a more effective and productive relationship

On Tuesday, the ACS Canberra 1st Mentoring Program Graduation took place at ACT Health and celebrated its success with 48 mentors & mentees.

Congratulations to the participants for the hard work over the past six months. We also welcomed 67 members (new group of mentors & mentees) to the next program.

What our menors & mentees say about this program?

  • Well structured and supported mentoring program, highly recommended
  • I was happy to be an ACS mentor for the inaugural program, and thoroughly recommend the experience
  • It helped me in making a connection with someone looking to talk and discuss their professional development
  • My participantion helped me building strong rapport with mentee to provide advice and support
  • Define my skills and gaps
  • I get an offer of tutor in my University
  • Got more professional Knowledge
  • The unanticipated result from the program was my election into the ACS Canberra Branch Executive Committee. Previously I wouldn't have considered nominating myself but I asked my mentor to be my nomination proposer
  • Techniques for preparing for interviews 
  • I found a higher paying job in my field of interest 
  • Idea sharing, process improvement

Use these ten tips for a more effective and productive relationship

1. Keep communications open

Mentor: Help your mentee set realistic expectations. Also, if you know you will be unavailable because of business or personal matter, let them know.

Mentee: Be upfront. Let your mentor know what your goals are, be more specific about your short-term and long-term goals, and what you hope to take away from the program. 

2. Offer support

Mentor: Encourage communication and participation. Be a good listener and provide constructive feedback or advice. Help create a solid plan of action, set regular meeting sessions to share ideas and check progress. 

Mentee: Remember, the choice is yours. Your mentor is there for you but is only a guide, and you will need to take action on what you wanted to achieve. 

3. Define expectations

Mentor: Help set up a system to measure achievement.

Mentee:  Review your goals. Make sure your mentor knows what to expect from you.

4. Maintain contact

Mentor: Respond to your e-mails. Answer questions and provide advice, resources and guidance when appropriate.

Mentee: Be polite and courteous. Respond to your e-mails and ask or answer questions.

5. Be honest

Mentor: Be truthful in your evaluations, but also be tactful.

Mentee: Let your mentor know if you don’t understand something or have a differing opinion.

6. Actively participate

Mentor: Engage in your own learning while you are mentoring, collaborate on projects, ask questions and experiment.

Mentee: Listen. Ask if you can observe your mentor’s practice if he/she is ok with that.

7. Be innovative and creative

Mentor: Share your ideas, give advice and be a resource for new ideas.

Mentee: Offer ideas on what activities and exercises you can do together. It is a great way to improve your social and networking skills.

8. Get to know each other

Mentor and Mentee: Remember that people come from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Get to know each other on an individual basis.

9. Be reliable and consistent

Mentor and Mentee: The more consistent you are, the more you will be trusted.

10. Stay positive

Mentor: Recognize the work the mentee has done, and the progress made.

Mentee: Remember that your mentor is offering feedback and not criticizing.

11. Make use of the resources that ACS provide to you.

The ACS Learning Accelerator has a number of short courses on trust building through effective communication, giving feedback and becoming a great listener.  These will help you: 

  • Explore the necessity of clearly presenting your information and intentions as the basis of effective communication
  • Ensure that your message is delivered in such a way so to maximize its impact and how managing your emotions allows you to adapt to the emotional needs of others to build trust.
  • Be mindful how your verbal communication combines with body language and vocal tone to better convey your message effectively.

Log in to your ACS membership portal to access the ACS Learning Accelerator short courses.

*At the completion of each course, you will receive a Certificate and CPD hours when scored a minimum of 70% on the test.

Volunteer to Be a Mentor

Members help members! Share your professional experiences and knowledge with ACS members who have a need in their profession life. Our next round of Mentoring program will start in February 2022, please contact ACS Canberra Branch acs.canb@acs.org.au if you are interested in being a mentor/or mentee.

 

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