How to Balance Your Responsibilities and Responsible Mentorship was originally published on Ivy Exec.
Mentorship plays a vital role in the workplace – both for mentors and mentees.
Building rapport with colleagues and leaders can help people realize their career goals while helping mentors exercise their leadership skills. Everyone can benefit from a supportive and motivational relationship at work.
In fact, a study by Gartner and Capital Analytics at Sun Microsystems found higher retention rates for mentees (72%) and mentors (69%) than other employees who didn’t participate in mentorship programs (49%).
While there are indubitable benefits to mentorship, there’s also no doubt that being a mentor to someone while you have an important job to do can feel like a juggling act. Creating the space to hold for someone else while still making sure you check off your own to-do list requires careful time management and prioritization, as well as respect for boundaries, strong communication, and accountability.
Here are some tips from leaders who have been mentors on how to balance responsibilities and responsible mentorship.
Prioritize your day.
Prioritization will help you best organize your day, week, or even month ahead.
Knowing which tasks need to get done – and in what order – can help you tackle your to-do list one by one, with way less worry about actually getting through that list. When you schedule your day, week, or month, you should also leave room for error when some tasks inevitably take longer than anticipated.
Only once you have a clear idea of how your day, week, or month ahead will generally look can you create space for mentoring. The last thing you want to do is throw a meeting on your calendar with a mentee but have to cancel it at the last minute because you’re in the middle of a messy work week.
Time management is critical when it comes to taking on mentorship responsibilities.
Set goals for both yourself and your mentee.
Having goals for your mentee is important – but you need to work together to define them.
You might think that they need to work on or toward X, Y, or Z, while they might actually care more about something else entirely. Spending ample quality time with your mentee to better understand their career goals, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, can help you to set realistic but also challenging goals together.
In the same vein, having goals for yourself is also important. As a mentor, you have a lot to learn in leadership skills. Maybe you want to become a better listener, for example. Share your intentions with your mentee so they can also provide feedback for you to help you show up as your best self each time.
Create clear boundaries.
Boundaries are important on both ends – for you and your mentee.
Communication of those boundaries is key. If you have a hard stop at 5 p.m. every day, for example, sharing that upfront can help you avoid scheduling conflicts and misunderstandings. Maybe you prefer to use your mornings as a time to focus on your work or take it easy while you get into a groove. Then, perhaps, mornings aren’t the best time to expend energy on someone else.
Likewise, you need to respect your mentee’s boundaries. Boundaries aren’t just about scheduling, either. Your mentee might not feel comfortable with how you communicate constructive criticism.
Actively listening to their needs can help you respect them and deliver.
Hold yourself and your mentee accountable for showing up.
Sure, your mentee needs to hold themselves accountable for doing the work to grow and develop.
Mentoring is not about holding someone’s hand but, rather, it’s about empowering them with support, motivation, and encouragement along the way. You should be there to help them unpack and understand their career journey, but they have to embark on the journey on their own.
In the same way, you need to be held accountable for your end of the bargain. Being sure to show up with your full attention is important. It’s not always easy to be supportive, but learning how to communicate with empathy and understanding goes a long way in a mentorship.
Hold space for yourself when you need it.
Burning out is the last thing you want to happen.
If you burn the candle at both ends, you won’t have time for your work or supporting your mentee. So be sure to be honest with yourself before you bite off more than you can chew. If you need to take space, take it.
Being honest and communicative is always appreciated – and it helps build that level of trust and rapport that a successful mentor-mentee relationship needs.
The bottom line
Balancing your own responsibilities while providing responsible mentorship can be challenging.
But mentorship is a critical component of career development – and acting as a mentor to someone else can also help you exercise other skills and make your career feel more fulfilling.
However, knowing how to manage your time and energy and setting realistic expectations are key to fostering a supportive, trusting, and mutually beneficial relationship.
