IV module. What does it means to be a Mentee in a mentoring process: roles and tasks

To be a Mentee means: that you have a strong desire to develop personally and professionally by setting targets/goals for yourself and developing action plans to work towards these goals. This is done in cooperation with other Mentees in the group and the Mentor if it is a group-mentoring and personally with mentor if it is a pair-mentoring. As a Mentee you must;

• Trust the other Mentees in the group mentoring;
• Follow the mentoring contract;
• Communicate openly;
• Take responsibility for your own decisions and actions;
• Understand that the Mentor is not a teacher, consultant or Manager;
• Be able to correctly and clearly formulate questions;
• Be open and honest with your Mentor;
• Realise your own personality and needs;
• Respect confidentiality and the privacy of the Mentor;
• Apply reached solutions and decisions in a practise.

A Mentee benefits from the mentoring process – he/she can:

• gain a better understanding of life;
• learn new attitudes and values;
• learn from other Mentees;
• create new network through their own group;
• widen networks through the Mentor;
• learn from the Mentor as from a role model.

Relationship between a Mentor and Mentee(s)

Relationship between a Mentor and a Mentee/Mentees during the mentoring process is based on the mutual inspiration and learning from each other. Mentoring is voluntary but it has its rules which are e.g. mutual respect of time and duties of each other and proactive attitude where the Mentor challenges and supports and the Mentee(s) deal with his/her areas of development. Mentoring is never one-sided and never defined by the superiority and subordination. It´s also very important that possibilities are not misused beyond the frame of mentoring.

It is very important for the Mentor to agree with his/her group of mentees on the communication rules within the group in order to help the group to work smoothly together in seeking for the individual and group goals. If the individual mentoring is chosen the Mentor should also agree on communication rules with his/her Mentee.

The rules of communication are the “Code of Ethics” which should be agreed on during the initial mentoring meeting and should be followed during the whole mentoring process.

In these rules the following main issues should be included:

• respect the time of the Mentor;
• do not contact the Mentor by phone late in the evening or during the weekends;
• the personal information which is said in the group or individual meetings is confidential;
• respect other opinions;
• think before saying/writing something;
• tell only true things;
• be open;
• be responsible for reaching your goals’

• if a Mentee is not able to attend a regular meeting, he/she is responsible for informing others (e.g. Manager, Mentor) and for finding a solution how he/she can follow the mentoring process;

if the Mentor is not able to attend a regular meeting, he/she has to inform all Mentees in advance, at least two days before, and find some other time suitable for the whole team for the next regular meeting, etc.