We are truly excited to share our network of extraordinary women with you as we set out to inspire the next generation of young, bright female professionals.
Please read through the following guidelines to ensure you’re making the best out of your experience.
Follow Through
- Keep track of action items throughout each session.
- Make reasonable commitments.
- Follow through with commitments.
- Provide Feedback (via survey and to mentor if requested).
Provide Feedback (via survey and to mentor if requested).
Keep It Legal
We advise you not to disclose sensitive or otherwise non-public information during the course of your mentoring sessions.
Before Your Session
When you set the date for each session, you should also provide the below information besides the normal meeting details.
- Focus area for each session (see below)
- Overview of your business/venture (first meeting only!)
- Agenda for session
- Any specific questions / topics you would like to discuss
Example Focus Areas: Negotiating skills, time management, career goals, strength assessments, leadership skills, communication tactics, resources, programming exercises, etc.
Best Practices as a Mentor
To ensure you provide your mentee with the appropriate level of help, it is paramount you listen and ask questions. Do not hesitate to rephrase and ask clarifying questions, this will go a long way in your conversation.
A good mentor has the following characteristics:
- Communication: They are excellent at listening, questioning, explaining, giving feedback and summarizing
- Self-awareness: Having a good knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses helps them be more open and human to the mentee
- Willing to share perspective and expertise: Don’t feel like you need to know all the answers. Mentees usually don’t want a guru or a superhero to work with – they want someone who is human and fallible, but more experienced than themselves!
- Honor your commitment!
A good mentor does NOT:
- Insist that she knows better than the mentee what’s best for her.
- Insist on sharing their wisdom – whether the mentee wants it or not.
- Do most of the talking; check frequently that you are paying attention!
- Demonstrate how important and well connected they are by sharing confidential information the mentee doesn’t need (or want) to know.
- Lecture, moralize or preach.
Best Practices as a Mentee
Below are some best practices and a list of the information you will be asked to provide.
Set Objectives:
- What problems might my mentor help me solve?
- What value am I looking to get out of this program?
- What would be the ideal result of each session?
Set Agenda:
- How can I make the most of my mentor’s time to meet my objectives?
- How do I focus the conversation toward what my startup/ project needs?
