How to Re-energize Your Mentoring Relationship

During any mentoring relationship, it’s important to check-in with each other to assess the relationship’s progress. This is typically done around the mid-point of your relationship and provides both parties with an opportunity to discuss and evaluate where you’re going.

The following tips will guide you through this check-in meeting with your mentoring partner.

Appreciate

Before the check-in meeting, think about what it is that you appreciate about your partner, some of the lessons that you have integrated into your personal and professional life and how you have grown as a result of this relationship. Tell your mentoring partner about this and take some time to say thank you. A good mentoring relationship is mutually beneficial to the mentee and the mentor and you should both have feedback to share about how you’ve grown and developed as a result of the relationship.

Evaluate

Discuss the mentoring objective and goals that were set at the beginning of the relationship. Examine which ones have been achieved and decide whether there are any other goals you’d like to add to the list. Take a look through your mentoring agreement as well to make sure that the relationship is staying on course. Evaluating your relationship provides a good opportunity to address any concerns that you may have and allows you to amend your agreement to reflect changing needs and expectations. To access a mentoring goal and agreement template, click here.

Formulate

Brainstorm what the rest of your mentoring relationship will look like. Are there specific goals and competencies that you want to focus on? If so, how and when will you work on these? There may also be other mentoring activities that you would like to build into your plan, such as attending a professional networking event together, role-playing or observing competencies in action.

The great thing about check-in meetings is that they help to refocus and re-energize a mentoring relationship to keep it moving forward with a clear direction and purpose.

© 2015 by Shawn Mintz. Shawn Mintz is the president of MentorCity, a social mentoring site that connects people to meaningful mentoring relationships. Shawn has created award-winning mentoring initiatives that have helped thousands of people to achieve greater success. For further information, please visit www.MentorCity.com.