Finding a Mentor: Being a Mentor

Here’s the deal, every single one of you has the ability to be a mentor. You have wisdom and experience to share with other. You have the ability to be a mentor, but can I offer some advice:

Don’t.

We tend to do a better job at being a peer than at trying to be a mentor. It doesn’t mean that you won’t be mentoring people, it just means that you won’t be arrogant and trying too hard to impart your special information.

In my experience, the people who do the best job of mentoring me treat me like a peer. They ask my advice about situations, they take notes on things that I’m talking about, they’re interested in my ideas. Even though they clearly have more to offer me than I do to them, they don’t see our time as an opportunity for them to impart their information to me, but as a time of mutual learning.

If you want to be a good mentor, stop trying to be a mentor and start figuring out how to be a better peer.