MENTEE HANDBOOK

GS-SS Support Specialist Team Coaching and Mentoring Program

 Benefits to a Mentee

Learn the Workplace Culture

Employees who are involved in a mentorship program.

are more aware of workplace routines, policies, and

expectations than those who do not participate.

This is an important factor in helping new hires to

feel more a part of the organization.

Enhance Skill Development

Most mentees are looking for someone to help them.

advance their career prospects. Through advice and

guidance, the mentor can help the employee.

develop their full potential in the workplace.

Networking

A workplace mentoring program is a great way to

boost employee networking opportunities.

For many new hires, it can take months and

sometimes years to get to know key co-workers.

Through a mentoring program, a mentee can gain

access to important career contacts sooner.

This is especially true in remote work environments.

Knowledge Transfer

The mentor should have a thorough knowledge of

the organization, as well as any programs or training

that a mentee can access to help them reach their goals.

The mentor can impart wisdom developed on the job

over time, information and workplace expectations or

policies that will help the mentee succeed in the long run.
This handbook has been created to support you during your journey as a Mentee. It is a source of
knowledge and resources that can help you develop truly meaningful, productive, positive mentoring
relationship with your Mentor. It will not make you prepared for every possible situation that may arise
during the mentorship program but will make it easier for you to start!

Mentorships exist to be a positive experience for both the mentor and mentee. Challenges can become
opportunities when you have someone who can reveal a different perspective. Your Role as a Mentee At
the beginning of the relationship, spending time clarifying what you can legitimately expect to give and
get through mentoring is essential. It is especially beneficial for the individuals involved to discuss,
negotiate, and agree upon expectations.

MENTORING

The base for mentoring process is created by:

- Commitment to the program

- Open communication
- Confidentiality
- Trust
- For the mentor: willingness to share your personal and professional experience with others
- For the mentee: willingness to learn

“When mentoring occurs, the mentee learns something that otherwise would be acquired less thoroughly,
more slowly, or not at all”

Your main responsibilities as a mentee:

- Together with your mentor create a Mentorship Agreement.

- Schedule meetings and keep commitments.
- Take charge of your own development.
- Prepare for the meetings- set the agenda, prepare a list of questions and follow up on previous
mentor’s suggestions and agreed next steps.
- Stay in touch with the mentor outside of scheduled meetings.
- Develop trusting, confidential, and mutually beneficial relationship.
- Listen effectively.
- Reflect upon learning and feedback.
- Ask for help if needed.
- Seek for feedback on strengths and areas for development.
- Provide feedback.
- Update your coach on how you are doing, highlight any issues.
YOUR COACHING SESSION

Before the mentoring process starts, you will have an opportunity to speak to the coach, to gain some
more clarity on what you would like to focus on within your professional development. Think about all
feedback you received in the last few months, projects and tasks that you enjoyed the most, biggest
accomplishments. Review your IDP- maybe there is something there you would like to focus on?

YOUR FIRST MEETING WITH YOUR MENTOR

First meeting gives you a chance to share both your excitement and expectations around the relationship
with your mentor. During the meeting, it is important to get to know each other, and agree on the way
you will be working together moving forward. Take some time to evaluate your coaching session, which
might help in clarifying your goals and expectations.

The Mentorship Agreement is important, as it brings clarity to the nature of the relationship, goals and
expectations. It will only benefit your relationship by setting clear rules, and it would not be
reviewed/collected by anyone outside of your relationship. Once all points are discussed, it is important
to sign the Mentorship Agreement, that will summarize all of them.

CONTENT OF THE MENTORSHIP AGREEMENT:

- Frequency, day, time and location.

- Structure of the meeting- e.g. are they structured, with an agenda, or needs based?
- Cancelation- when, what to do.
- Who is responsible to initiate meetings.
- Who is responsible to capture meeting actions.
- What you want to achieve (goals)?
- Progress tracking- how?
- Confidentiality (what parts are confidential, does that rule always apply).
- Expectations from both sides in relation to mentoring relationship and mentor/mentee roles and
how to meet them.
- Way to communicate outside of the meetings.
- Best ways to give feedback.
- Conflicts resolution.

The Mentorship Agreement should include: “We agree to the commitment stated above” comment and
signatures of both Mentor and Mentee.

Before the first meeting make sure:

 - You reviewed the above points and have an idea about how you want the relationship to look like.
- You should have most (if not all) points completed by the end of the meeting- please focus on the
logistics part as it is important in moving forward after the initial meeting.
- Goals, even if defined in mentor/mentee profiles, might require additional review and update. If
so, please consider them as action items for both of you to finalize your Mentorship Agreement
at the beginning of the second meeting.
- If necessary, you can always make changes/amendments to the Mentorship Agreement during
mentorship program once you both agree on them.

GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER – important part of the first meeting.

Think about what else (apart from the profile you have already read) you would like to know about your
mentor. What would you like to share with your mentor about yourself? Have you had a chance to talk
before (e.g. after reviewing mentors’ profiles), and if so, is there anything you would like to follow up on?
Below you will find some questions that might be useful when building the relationship with your mentor:

- What makes you decide to become a mentor?

- What would you like to get out of this relationship?
- What is the best way to communicate with you?
- I would like to focus my goals on this area. What are your thoughts? Do you have any suggestions?

AFTER THE MEETING

Reflect on the meeting:

- Think about the quality of the conversation.

o What did I like?
o What would I like to change?
- Is there any feedback I would like to provide to my mentor?
- Is there anything I would like to share with my manager at this stage?
- Do I need more support from the Project Manager?

Action planning:

- What commitments have I made to my mentor and myself?

- What steps do I need to take to fulfill those? By when?
- Who else do I need to contact prior to our next meeting?
- Confirm the next meeting.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO DEVELOP A TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR MENTOR?

- Be open to have an honest discussion with your mentor, e.g. about your personal and professional
background, thoughts about the Mentorship Program.
- Share your personal thoughts (e.g. “I personally feel…”, “What I don’t like …”)
- Demonstrate respect in all interactions
- Practice accountability; do not blame others
- Keep commitments
- Seek your mentor’s approval to share information with others
- Immediately share if confidentiality has been broken
- Clarify when a topic seems to be headed in a direction where confidentiality may not be able to
be protected
- During conversations, ask for permission before taking notes
- Ask clarifying questions to understand your mentor’s advice, suggestions.
- Provide specific, actionable feedback to your mentor around the relationship, your needs, etc.
- Prepare for your meetings: identify 2 to 3 key discussion topics, review agreements from previous
meetings
- Be present and attentive to your mentor
- Use non-verbal signals to invite dialogue and demonstrate that you are listening and understand
(e.g., sitting forward, eye contact, nodding head)

NEXT MEETINGS

- Focus on 1-2 goals/objectives set up during the first meeting

- Think about what you can do to continue building trusting relationship with your mentor.

EXAMPLES OF TOPICS

Below are some topics/questions you might want to discuss with your Mentor. If it is your first time as a
mentee, they may give you an overview and help you prepare for the role.

- What career experiences have helped you the most in your own professional development?
- What were the most important lessons learned from these experiences?
- What have mentors done for you and your development?
- What kind of mentoring experiences have been most helpful?
- What do you expect from the mentoring experience?
- How will you know when mentoring is working/not working?
- How are decisions made within our organization/company? How do things really get done?
- Successful people, role models and how they got to where they are.
 - Changes in the industry, company, organization.
- The future for industry, company, organization.
- Leadership- what does it look like.
- Managing workload
- Managing relationships
- Career progression
- Interpreting Feedback
- Developing others
- Navigating career paths
- Marketing yourself
- Top common career pitfalls
- Influencing within your organization
- Preparing for important meetings
- Clarifying recent industry decisions / announcements
- Balancing work and family life
- Getting better at your technical skills
- Assessing and working on your leadership style
- Discussions on relevant articles, books and thought pieces with associated questions for
discussion

MOST COMMON MISTAKES

This chapter can help to highlight some of the most popular mistakes mentors and mentees can make.
Once you are aware of them, you can do your best to avoid them. But no worries, everyone makes
mistakes, so when it happens- go back to this chapter, read it again and move forward!

1. UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

This is quite common- encouraged and ambitious mentee focuses on too much stuff at the same time,
and usually too soon. You have 6 months, be realistic about what you can achieve within that timeframe.
Make the goals and expectations clear during the first meeting, and make sure they are all captured in the
agreement.

2. FOCUSING TOO MUCH ON PERSONAL TOPICS

Sometimes the conversation can move towards more personal topics. As much as it may be important to
ask your mentor about his day or holiday plans, share some personal information about yourself (which
may help to build a relationship with your mentor), you need to be very careful and keep in mind the main
goal of your relationship, which should be related to your professional development. If you feel it went
too far, make sure to quickly refocus the conversation on more meaningful topics. Also, if you are friends
with your mentor, it might be easier as the trust is already there, but on the other hand you need to make
sure it is a professional development what you both focus on.

3. BEING AFRAID TO SAY WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID

It’s important to be nice and patient, but at the same time if things need to be said, to ensure progress,
they need to be said better sooner than later. If you as a mentee need to provide feedback, have courage
to do so, otherwise it can only negatively impact your trust and the me ntoring relationship overall.
Mentoring is both way development, mentors do develop in their roles as well.

4. BELIEVING MENTOR KNOWS EVERYTING

The mentor is there to support your development as a more experienced and skilled person. However,
they may not have all answers to all questions. The mentor role is to support the mentee in finding out
the answers and solutions if needed.

5. GETTING FRUSTRATED ABOUT LACK OF PROGRESS

As mentoring is an ongoing process, there might be moments of great progress, and more static moments.
Make sure you stay in touch with your mentor between the scheduled meetings to discuss challenges and
monitor progress. Provide valuable feedback about the relationship to your me ntor and make changes to
the agreement if necessary.

6. NO FOCUS/TIME SPENT ON RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Progress is important, but it won’t be effective without a trusting relationship between mentor and
mentee. Make sure you spend time on building the rapport, not only during the first meeting, to ensure
productive mentoring process. Remember: without the trust your feedback might not be heard (and
effective) at all!

RESOURCES

It is important that during your mentorship experience, you keep building your skills and capabilities.

Articles:

- How to Be a Mentee a Mentor Would Die For

Videos:

- How to Work with a Mentor | Kate Lauren

- Tips for a Successful Mentoring Relationship
- Mentoring Series: The Role of a Mentee
- How to be a great mentee / mentor
- Preparing for your first mentoring meeting - a webinar with Dr Amy Iversen

Trainings:

- How to be a great mentee (Pluralsight) - MANDATORY BEFORE STARTING TO MEET WITH

MENTEES