Mentoring: Breaking Barriers - X-Forces Enterprise
Start Up Loans hits £1bn milestone of loans to UK small businesses
September 13, 2023
Armed Forces Contribution to Society Commended by Nation’s Leaders at 13th Annual Soldiering On Awards
October 2, 2023

Mentoring: Breaking Barriers

The major barrier to effective mentoring is a difference in expectations between the Mentee and the Mentor, so this is where the initial discussion about expectations will be beneficial to both parties…

It is also important for both parties to be in the right emotional state to support an effective outcome. Ideally both parties should feel relaxed, focused on the issue, objective, even slightly detached.

The following states are not conducive to effective mentoring outcomes:

  1. Feeling angry
  2. Feeling hostile
  3. Feeling frustrated
  4. Feeling impatient
  5. Feeling anxious
  6. Feeling bored

The following actions by the Mentor will also inhibit effective outcomes for the Mentee.

  1. Too much talking
  2. Seeking to control or dominate the conversation
  3. Needing to be right
  4. Playing fix-it’
  5. Assuming it’s just like a previous case
  6. Looking for perfection – perfection is in the eye of the beholder
  7. Trying to look good in the conversation

The effective Mentor achieves a balance between competing tensions as shown here:

 

 

To learn more about mentoring and connect with experienced entrepreneurs keen to share knowledge with those new to self-employment, join the XFE Knowledge Exchange Hub free https://xfehub.com/post/440

 

Comments are closed.

Sign up to our newsletter

Join our Military in Business® Quarterly to stay in the loop with upcoming training & networking events, Ambassador insights, special guest speakers and trending business articles.