Growing your Mentor-Mentee Relationship: What will it take?

Dear Aspiring Mentors,

It's a great time to be alive and I am excited to write you the 2nd edition of #PayItForward

Can I officially say a big congratulations to you? 🏅🥉🥈🥇

Why? Because you have made a decision to give back.

A mentoring relationship is one of the vital relationships you need to hold in high esteem, especially if you seek career growth or leadership influence.

In fact, 87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring relationships and have developed greater confidence – highlighting that it’s really bringing value to both parties.

To ensure your relationship is successful here are some ways that let you build an authentic connection with your mentor/mentee.

As a Mentor:

• Help your mentee set realistic expectations. Also, if you know you will be unavailable because of business or personal travel, let them know.
• Encourage communication and participation. Help create a solid plan of action.
• Define expectations. Help set up a system to measure achievement. Minimizing confusion and clarifying expectations are critical to establishing a healthy mentor/mentee relationship.
• Respond to your e-mails. Answer questions and provide advice, resources, and guidance when appropriate.
• Be truthful in your evaluations, but also be tactful.
• Actively participate. Engage in your own learning while you are mentoring, collaborate on projects, ask questions, and experiment.
• Stay positive. Recognize the work the mentee has done and the progress made.

Let’s talk about the career benefits of becoming a mentor?

There are a plethora of known benefits a mentee can gain from you including but not limited to, developing their confidence, receiving valuable advice, and building their professional networks. However, mentorship can play a key role in professional development for both mentee and mentor, serving more as an unofficial business/career relationship.

Becoming a mentor can enrich your life on a personal and professional level by helping you do the following:

• Positively impact another person’s career and gain personal satisfaction: You may not consider yourself much of a teacher but sharing your knowledge with a mentee can be empowering.

As a mentor, you can help other hospitality professionals avoid the pitfalls you may have faced in your own career and give them insight into the hospitality industry. It can be very personally fulfilling to know that you’re directly contributing to someone else’s growth and development, and seeing your mentee succeed as a result can feel like a reward in itself.

• Develop your interpersonal, leadership, and management skills: Becoming a mentor can help you learn how to oversee and guide people that come from different backgrounds, environments, and stages of life to you.

As you may speak a very different “language” to one another, you may be forced to find a new way to communicate more effectively. Leading and helping others requires you to take initiative, be adaptable and problem solve based on the bigger picture, putting your own skills to the test!

• Increase your professional networks and learn from future members of your profession: Although you probably have a variety of professional connections at this stage in your career, it is best to always keep an open mind, as the chances are you may learn something new as well – particularly if you are mentoring people from different generations. 

Remember, the people you mentor today are the decision-makers of tomorrow, and can act as a network of allies throughout your profession.

Let’s meet again in the next edition. 

Yours in Mentoring 

Yvonne Joseph 

PS: I recently opened my flagship mentorship program to over 40 female students in Hospitality and Tourism Management. 

See how I celebrated my mentees here 🥳🥳🥳https://www.linkedin.com/posts/josephyvonne_career-training-mentoring-activity-6942049038212968449-CR6V?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

Mentor Opportunity

Calling on aspiring MENTORS who will be willing to share their “ hospitality work experience in a one-hour live series, tagged: GETTING STARTED IN HOSPITALITY: What you should know. 

Would you be interested? Kindly reply to this email with a YES or send me a quick message on Linkedin and I will provide you with the necessary details. 

About this NewsLetter 💌

Pay it Forward is a bi-weekly newsletter for hospitality industry professionals to develop leadership skills by harnessing the power of mentoring. Editions are sent to you on the 15th and 30th of each month. 

Anticipate.