How To Select The Best Mentor? Top 5 Mentoring Skills To Look For

Mentors play a vital role in a mentoring relationship. Not only they help employees in professional development but in personal development too. Although a mentoring relationship is a two-way street, identifying a mentor with the necessary skills is crucial for the process to become successful. 

Every mentor may not have all the skills, but here are the top 5 mentoring skills to look for in a mentor:

1. Active Listener

Active Listening is one of the most important and basic mentoring skills to have for every mentor. When the mentor is an active listener, the mentees feel heard and respected. When their concerns are given importance, they feel valued and heard. A good mentor must know how to listen openly before imposing their own thoughts and sharing their experiences. When mentors listen actively, mentees stay engaged in the conversation for a longer time. 

Here are a few ways in which the mentors can be an active listener in the conversation:

• Taking genuine interest in the meeting
• Avoiding interruption while mentees are speaking
• By asking open-ended questions to the mentees
• Summarize all the list of points discussed in the meeting

A mentor who is an active listener can build a sense of trust with their mentees and solve their problems more efficiently. Although many are not active listeners, it is easy to develop as a skill through various courses available online.

Also Read: Top 5 Mentoring Challenges and Their Solutions

2. Enthusiastic

Just as important as it is for a mentee to be enthusiastic in a mentoring relationship, the same goes for the mentor too. A mentor should always be ready and eager to help. Enthusiasm is good for a mentoring relationship to be successful in the long run. It rubs off positively with the mentees, and they stay engaged and motivated continuously throughout the course of the mentoring relationship. Enthusiastic mentors are those who not only like to talk and share their knowledge and experiences, but they sincerely believe in helping others with what they know.

3. Good Communicator

Along with being a good listener, another important mentoring skill for any mentor is ‘the art of effective communication.’ Mentor’s knowledge and wisdom would not be useful to the mentee unless they can express themselves clearly. Managing the thoughts, expressing them clearly and concisely with the mentee is crucial for them to learn and understand. Not only this, but mentors must also learn to manage the difficulty of conversation level depending upon the mentee’s expertise.

Also Read: Improve Your Workplace Culture With A Mentoring Program

4. Encouraging

Who doesn’t love encouragement and feedback? Everyone does! Isn’t it? The ability to encourage others is another top mentoring skill that mentors should have. When mentors encourage their mentees, they feel comfortable and confident. They come out of their comfort zone and open up. It makes them share their thoughts and opinions, ask questions, give feedback, etc. Consequently, it helps in building trust in the mentoring relationship. Moreover, statistics reveal that when people are out of their comfort zone, they are better innovators and risk-takers. Encouragement helps in establishing a long-lasting mentoring relationship.

Encouragement can be as praise, recognition, rewards, feedback, etc. It will help them reinforce positive behaviors.

5. Empathetic

Empathy in the current times is one skill that not only a mentor should have, but everyone. It enables mentors to relate to and understand their mentees better. Mentors need to understand what others are going through and be emotionally intelligent while handling conversations with the mentees. When mentors are empathetic towards their mentees, they set a better connection and bond.

Empathy, like other skills, cannot be taught but can be honed with practice.

Also Read: Why Mentoring Training Is Important For Mentors

Final Thoughts

We mentioned a list of mentoring skills which we thought are absolutely crucial for setting up a mentoring relationship. But the list is not exhaustive. Let us know in comments which skills do you think are important for a mentor to possess?