Tips for a meaningful mentor relationship
- Keep a positive attitude.
- Ask questions and take the time to get to know each other. You may discover that a mentor has more to share with you than what was listed in his or her profile.
- Communication should be open and consistent. If you need to use a personal email address, let your mentor/mentee know right away. You should also consistently check the email account or other form of communication that you have both agreed to use. This way you do not inadvertently miss responding to a communication.
- Respect each other, be professional, and set limits. If you are working with confidential or proprietary information, let your mentee know.
- Be courteous of time; if you can’t respond right away because of a previous commitment, acknowledge the communication and inform the other person when you will be able to respond. It is a good idea to let each other know if you have any travel plans that would impede communication.
- When using electronic communication, emails can often be caught in spam filters. Please mark your mentor or mentee as a safe sender on your email. If you have emailed more than twice with no response, please contact SPE eMentoring Program Coordinator.
Have best practices you would like to share? Email them to ementor@spe.org.
