3 Things To Watch Out When You Mentor Someone

The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.

— Steven Spielberg

How you think about mentorship is deeply influenced by what kind of mentors you have had in your life. That’s why it matters to be mindful and effective at it. You will surely create a chain reaction.

Ever wondered why some people are such positive influences as mentors while others are hopelessly ineffective at it?

— Maybe it’s because the word is grossly misunderstood.

I want to discuss a few problems with mentors and mentorship I have observed in engineering teams, where mentorship plays such an important role in the sustained performances and loyalties of team members.

1. Mentoring is not teaching

This is by far the most common problem in my observations. To mentor is not just to teach. There is a reason we call the ones we had in school and college as teachers and not mentors.

Every time you catch yourself teaching when you should have instead been mentoring, try and replace the assertions with questions and…