How to Become a Certified Mentor

A mentor is someone who plays the role of a guide, a trusted advisor, a teacher, and a friend to a younger person. They help their mentees grow professionally and personally by sharing their knowledge and experience. They are a subject-matter expert and inspire mentees by modelling positive behaviour.

Steve Jobs’ words shed a light on what a mentor is and what he does-

“My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.”

Working as a mentor can be an invaluable experience for seasoned professionals. If you are going to be a mentor, you will learn a lot of new things about yourself and about your mentees that will help you grow further. You will get different perspectives and ideas of a situation.

Unlike coaching, mentoring is a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship.

Also Read: Online Mentoring Courses – Highlights from Mentoring University

What are the roles and responsibilities of a mentor?

A mentor’s roles and responsibilities include:

• Helping the mentee see his/her destination
• Providing guidance and exposing them to new experiences
• Offering advice in order for them to reach their goals
• Creating a safe environment for the mentee so that they can make mistakes without the fear of losing credibility and learn from mistakes
• Supporting them to enhance their self-esteem
• Sharing resources that are helpful to the mentee
• Communicating through active listening, focusing on the mentee when they are talking
• Sharing personal experiences, mistakes, and success stories in order to motivate the mentee
• Ensuring an uninterrupted mentoring session

What are not the roles and responsibilities of a mentor?

A mentor’s roles and responsibilities does not include:

• Showing the mentee a detailed roadmap to reach their destination
• Expecting the mentee to follow the mentor’s footsteps
• Serving as a coach
• Having all the answers
• Promising a promotion to the mentee
• Providing support outside of the mentor’s scope of interest
• Serving as a counselor or therapist
• Offering jobs or internships to the mentee

Why is Mentoring Certification Important to Be an Effective Mentor?

Mentoring is not just answering questions and providing necessary resources, it is a skill that every mentor must-have. Mentoring training and certification programs help mentors develop the necessary skills to be successful.

A mentoring certification program focuses on building the following mentoring skills:

1. Active Listening

Active listening is a fundamental mentoring skill where you listen with all your senses. You pay attention to non-verbal cues like eye contact, body language, etc. You appear to be genuinely interested in a conversation and avoid interrupting while your mentee is talking.

Active listening is necessary to understand your mentees and what they are saying. Because words only convey 7% of what a person is trying to say; the other 93% is communicated through facial expressions and tone of voice.

2. Developing Capabilities

At times, mentors need to be teachers. This means you will be modelling specific behaviours to convey your messages and ideas. While it is exciting to tell your mentee what to do and what not to do, the real challenge for a mentor is to ensure that your mentee finds a way to deal with a situation.

3. Providing Constructive Feedback

Mentors must master the art of feedback giving. Corrective feedback is as important for a mentee as frequent positive feedback. A mentor should have the ability to balance positive and negative feedback. Constructive feedback, if given in a positive and non-derogatory way, is extremely helpful for a person to grow.

“Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

4. Trust Building

The more a mentee trusts a mentor, the more they open up in front of them. It is a mentor’s responsibility to create a safe environment for the mentee. Trust development doesn’t happen overnight. So, you must spend time with your mentee and manifest trustable actions and behaviors. 

5. Risk Management

A good mentor is someone who is capable of protecting their mentees from disasters. They help their mentees recognize the risks involved in an action, help them learn to prepare, and encourage them to trust their decision. Mentors also offer help in identifying risks and managing them through prevention and recovery strategies.

All of these are crucial mentoring skills. Mentoring certification not only develops you to become an effective mentor but also validates your skills.

Also Read: What Are Some Workplace Challenges for a New Employee?

Who can become a Certified Mentor?

Anyone who is a subject-matter expert and enjoys helping others can become a certified mentor.

How to Become a Certified Mentor?

There are a lot of online mentoring training and certification courses available. At Mentoring University, we have structured mentoring certification courses for mentors, mentees, and even mentoring program managers. Because we believe every mentoring participant needs training to be effective in their areas.

Mentoring University’s training is based on humanistic psychology, with courses curated from thirty years of the executed mentoring experience. With a proven methodology, mentors are more likely to interact with mentees and establish mentorship relationships competently.

Our courses include audio skits, interactive quizzes, and dynamic tutorials. In addition, you will have unlimited access to various mentoring resources.

Also Read: Why Mentoring Training is Important for Mentors

To Become a Certified Mentor:

• You first need to select the course that best suits your needs
• Register yourself to the course
• Get started with it
• At the end of each module, you will require to pass a test
• You must complete each module of a course to become a certified mentor
• The completion time varies depending on the course that you choose
• Upon completion of the course, you will be provided with a downloadable mentor certificate

Once you are a Certified Mentor, your mentoring skills are validated. You are now ready to get involved in a mentoring relationship with the ability to succeed.