Business Mentoring Matters

While mentoring has many components to it, sharing is an important factor in the development of a mentoree.  As a mentor, not only should you share your knowledge, but you can also share your thoughts, insights, advice and even your mistakes.  This is a great way to open up the communication between the two of you.  Since you don't want to lecture the mentoree, it is best to share the information through casual conversation or by storytelling.  Storytelling is a good way to share experiences, whether good or bad, and at the same time offer encouragement to the mentoree.  Storytelling about your experience gives the mentoree a better insight into who you are and also opens up the potential for the mentoree to share their own story.  This also should provide a positive interaction between the two of you.  In the long run, sharing could lead to gaining the trust of your mentoree and also to a more successful mentoring relationship.  When engaged in a diverse pairing, storytelling can be an especially effective way of opening the doors to conversations that are sometimes difficult to start.  For example, if one shares an experience of having been treated in a condescending manner as a woman or a person of color, this can lead to explore this more deeply without having to ask the question:  "Shall we talk about diversity". 

So what stories do you have to share with your partner?