[Mentoring] What is your mindset and role? Grow with your mentee

Hello!
This is Inoue, a Persian cat from Beyond Shikoku Office.

The new year has started, and I have a new junior colleague. (It's presumptuous of me to say I'm your senior...)
By the way, do you know what "business mentoring" is?
There may be many companies that offer "business mentoring."
I learned about the existence of "business mentoring" for the first time when I was assigned the role of "mentor."
Mentors are in charge of mentees in other departments, so it is important to build relationships and trust that transcend departments.

A mentor's role is to serve as a partner and provide support to junior employees who have little knowledge or experience as working adults .
On the other hand, a mentee is a junior employee who receives support and has little experience working in the workforce .
Mentoring
is a relationship in which one-on-one meetings are held to listen to the mentee's concerns, help the mentee break out of a negative shell, or watch over and support the mentee's problem-solving and growth .

Attitude and role as a mentor

As a mentor, I keep the following in mind:

• Be interested in the mentee's work (job content).
• Be interested in the mentee's hobbies and interests
• I will always be on my mentee's side, no matter what.
• Be interested in your mentee's growth and be willing to devote time to mentoring.
• Respect your mentee and have your mentee respect you.
• Encourage and support your mentee. Also, spare no effort.

The role of a mentor in my opinion is as follows.

• Clarify the mentee's goals, monitor and support the mentee's progress.
• We provide support to enrich your work and private life.
• Accept and provide advice when problems or issues arise.
• Build a relationship of trust so that when a problem or issue arises, you want to talk to your mentor.
• Understand and manage mentee's motivation and stress.
• Review, review and share current status and next steps.

My wall as a mentor

First of all, I had never received "business mentoring" and
had no idea what to do as a mentor, so I didn't know where to start.
Also, how should I approach a mentor who is in a different department, based in a different location, and of a different gender?
I'm not a good talker or a good listener...
First of all, I'd like to talk about the terms ``mentor,'' ``mentee,'' and ``mentoring.'' I just searched for the word on Google.
Other mentors gave me advice on how often to conduct interviews and how to proceed with the conversation.
After thinking about what my mentoring style should be,
``I just want to see things from the mentee's point of view ,'' so I decided to keep my core intact.

Things I tried to do when conducting interviews

During the first interview, I asked a variety of questions to get to know the mentee.
Date of birth, hobbies, questions, etc.
Because the locations are different, each session is conducted online, so I do not purposely speak directly to the mentee.
I placed a monitor diagonally to my right and occasionally made eye contact while taking minutes.
This is to avoid making the mentees nervous, as they are based in different locations and have not had much communication with each other.
By not making the mentee nervous, I hope the mentee will speak in a relaxed and natural way. That's what I thought.
The questions are also a mix of ``closed questions'' that can be answered with ``yes'' or ``no,'' and
``open questions'' that require students to answer in their own words or that can be answered freely.
I try not to ask questions that lead to answers or point out weaknesses.
In addition, I started checking the mentee's daily work report, which I had not done before being appointed as a mentor, and
when I saw a glimpse of the mentee's strengths or experienced success, I celebrated with them and praised them. Masu.
Rather than praising someone, the words just came out of their mouths naturally.
I guess this is because I have become more aware of my mentee as a person. I also feel that.

What are the benefits of mentoring?

I believe that the growth of our employees is the growth of our company.
Most of all, as a mentor, I looked forward to the interview time with my mentees.
This is because as I meet with my mentee, I feel deep down that I want to know more and help my mentee.

I also became interested in the work of my mentees who were assigned to other departments
with whom I had little communication Also, my mentee gave me the responsibility and sense of being a ``senior'' to me, who had always been stuck as a lowly employee.
Interviews are something you both make time for when you are both busy with work.
Therefore, I began to think and devise ways to make each hour of the interview meaningful for both of us.

, I try to create an agenda in advance
by reviewing the previous meeting, confirming the current situation, and next steps So I started keeping notes of what was said, like minutes.
During the review of the previous session, check whether the problems and issues you were worried about last time were resolved, and what process you used to resolve them.
When checking the current situation, we will listen to your current concerns and issues.
While listening to the story, we also assess the mentee's level of stress.
The next step is to identify your mentee's short-term goals.
We ask them to share their long-term goals with us, but we meet with them at least once a month, so we
ask them to set and implement goals that can be achieved within a month.
It means accumulating small success experiences.
This builds confidence, increases self-esteem, and self-efficacy.
I believe that high self-esteem and self-efficacy are very important in order to maintain motivation as a member of society.
I believe that high self-esteem and self-efficacy have the following effects:

• Improve stress control and emotional control.
• Able to think about things from a positive and positive perspective.
• I am able to accept the "differences" of my co-workers.
• I can listen to what others have to say and can clearly convey my thoughts.
• You can make use of your successful experiences and experience self-growth.

Finally

I see my mentees grow each time I have interviews with them.
I am also grateful to the company that gave me the opportunity to grow through "business mentoring."
It may be presumptuous of me to call you a ``senior'', and I am still immature, but
I will work hard to accumulate time where we can grow together as ``Beyond friends.''

Growing every day, moving forward every day.
I have to update myself every day! ! !
Thank you for reading to the end.