Guidelines for Mentors

A mentor should be ready to listen, to be open and share their successes and failures, and to help guide their mentee to make decisions that will help her career and overall well-being. A mentor asks thought-provoking questions, identifies potentially helpful relationships/connections, and assists their mentee in developing short- and long-term goals.

A mentor should…

• Provide vision, insight and encouragement
• Ensure a safe environment for asking questions and taking risks
• Make the time to meet with their mentee(s) every month or two

To be a successful mentor, you should:

• Think of yourself as a colleague first, an expert second. You want to create an environment where your mentee(s) will feel she can ask you difficult questions and take risks, not one where she is intimidated. Establish trust and openness in communication from the beginning.
• Place responsibility on the mentee(s) to schedule meetings. However, especially initially, mentees may be hesitant to reach out. Don't be afraid to prompt as you see fit; but also, don’t feel obligated to chase them down to plan meetings.
• Strict accountability systems may work well for some, but not others. Every mentoring relationship is unique. Be up front with your mentee(s) on how you want to structure the relationship and track progress.
• Don’t be afraid to set boundaries. If a mentee asks for something you’re not ready or able to give (contacts, personal information), tell them. Additionally, don’t feel like you have to keep personal life outside the scope of your conversations. Sometimes home life can be a big barrier to career advancement.
• Approach being a mentor like being an ally. This is especially true if you and your mentee(s) have fundamentally different lived experiences due to gender, race, sexuality, etc.

Guidelines for Mentees

A mentee should be committed to growing professionally in an internationally-oriented career, ready to listen, and to be open and honest with their mentor. She should be ready to take the initiative to ask questions, seek out opportunities to learn and to listen to and learn from constructive feedback.

A mentee should…

• Have a desire to learn, grow and succeed
• Be ready to honestly assess her goals, shortcomings, and strengths
• Take initiative and actively participate in the mentoring relationship

To build a successful mentoring relationship, you should:

• Come prepared to meetings with goals, an agenda, and topics of conversation. Sharing these with your mentor beforehand can help guide the conversation and maximize the time you have together. Think about what your goals are, what you want to learn.
• It is up to YOU, the mentee, to initiate meetings. We recommend asking your mentor how they want to schedule each session. Your mentor may prefer a regularly scheduled meeting (i.e., first Thursday of the month) or on a more ad hoc/as needed basis.
• If a mentor gives you a piece of advice, person to contact, organization to look into - follow up with them once you’ve completed these action items.
• You can ask your mentor for help with a variety of things including outlining goals, defining your vision, cover letter and resume review, and contact referrals. Make sure, again, that you communicate to figure out what your mentor is willing to discuss and offer you. 
• WFPG’s mentors are often high level professionals with robust working schedules. Please remain mindful and grateful of the time that they have donated to this program and the mentees.

Getting Started

Mentorship is what you make of it! Be upfront about goals, expectations, and communicate openly. When setting up your first meeting, be sure to communicate about whether your partnership will take place in-person, virtual, or hybrid. We ask our mentees to take ownership of this partnership and to take the lead on scheduling the first meeting.

You each received each others bios, but it may be helpful to dedicate some time at the beginning of the meeting to introduce yourselves and share a bit more about your career path and journey so far. It's also important to discuss what expectations you both have for this relationship. Mentors, make sure you provide space for the mentee to share her career goals--or if she is still not sure what she is looking for, some space for her to ask some general questions about the field in general. Before you end the meeting, make sure that you set the date for your next meeting.

Here are a few questions to think about in your first couple meetings:

• Introduce yourselves and share what your expectations are for the year
• Mentors: How did you get to where you are now? What bumps and snags were there? What do you wish you had known about this field earlier?
• Mentees: Where are you in your career or studies? What key questions do you have right now? Where would you like to be? What do you see as your biggest obstacle? How do you think your mentor can help you?
• What's next? 
• Once you define your goals, what steps can you take now that will help get to where you want to be? 
• When will you meet next and what do you want to accomplish or work on between now and then?

Every mentee is in a different place in her career and every mentoring relationship will be different, but we suggest that by the end of your second meeting each mentee should have outlined a couple long-term goals, and a few concrete steps that she wants to take in the next year to help her reach her future goals. 

We also invite you to think of other opportunities to connect. Some ideas could include:

• Attending a relevant event together and having a conversation afterwards - perhaps WFPG events. 
• Frame a conversation around an article or podcast you both read/listened to.