Seven Ways to Kick-Start your Mentoring Relationships
Not every mentor-mentee pair has instant chemistry for a great fit. Sometimes it takes time, and less extroverted people can use some guidelines sometimes. Feel free to use the below as a way to start out, and then go from there.
1. --Exchange contact information in person if possible, or asap via email. Be clear about any boundaries you have (no calls after 10 p.m., or I don’t check e-mail!)
2. --Exchange schedule information, especially likely times you would be able to get together or talk, this semester.
3. --Set up a first meeting in person. A neutral café off-campus is great, but you could also take a tour around campus (with the mentor showing his/her/their favorite places!), meet after class in the Student Center, or find a quiet Library corner.
4. --Get to know each other a little at a first meeting. What brought each of you to the college? Where do you want to go in your career and life? What do you do outside of work?
5. --Learn about each other’s professional life at a first meeting. What’s your expertise, what’s your Gavilan assignment, how is it going and what might be challenges?
6. --Discuss what the mentee would like in the relationship at a first meeting. Many pairs benefit from an early discussion of how often they might like to meet or talk, topics that would be helpful to discuss, what would make meeting or talking easiest, and how communication will occur.
7--Do something fun together that doesn’t involve teaching-talk.
These are not marriages, and though the relationships usually work well, sometimes they don’t. And you can ask for an additional or replacement mentor or mentee, if that’s the case.