The phone rang and when I answered it I could hear the excitement in her voice. She had just finished her first mentor session with her mentee and the results were absolutely awesome. I could hear a number of feelings/emotions as she shared her thoughts and feelings of the start of a journey with this young person. Her first challenge was to begin to develop a trusted relationship and she felt that she had done this. There was a sense of pride in the fact that she was able to develop some degree of trust in a short period of time. She felt that she had gained a lot of knowledge about whom this young person is and the life journey that they have had so far. I was proud of what she was doing as she was being very careful to generalize and not share any of the details that may be viewed as a breach of mentor/mentee confidentiality.

We discussed what had taken place and how she felt going into the session with this young person. She indicated that she felt prepared as a result of the training that she had taken. She was confident that if she used the tools that she had been provided that she would be able to make a difference over time in this young person’s life. She had learned that taking a pause before responding to a statement or question is of great value as you formulate what you are going to say. This pause helped her frame her statements in the context of a question – using the Socratic Method. This helped keep the dialogue going in what could have been a conversation with a lot of quiet space.

We talked about the value of having that training and it was evident that it provided her with the tools to effectively mentor the young person. The training provided her with the confidence that she needed to take this opportunity and create a learning and development opportunity for the both of them. She felt that had she not have had this training she may not have engaged in this opportunity. The training made a difference for her and as a result it also had an impact on the young professional that she was building the relationship with. She also knew that I was a phone call away should something happen that she was not comfortable in dealing with. We would walk through the situation together and I would help her unlock the answers to those questions – as she already had the answer! My job is to unlock the answer and guide her to it.

We talk a lot about some of the reasons that mentoring programs fail. One of those reasons is that we do not provide our mentors with the tools to be successful. This was a great example of where the training paid off not only for the mentor but for the mentee as well. Effective mentoring relationships are two way and this example solidifies that statement.

This young person and the organization she is part of embraced the “power of mentoring”. Can you afford not to?