How can you build trust and rapport with your mentee while maintaining professional boundaries?

1 Be clear about expectations

Before you start mentoring, discuss and agree on the goals, roles, responsibilities, and expectations of both parties. This will help you avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, and disappointments later on. Clarify the scope, duration, frequency, and format of your mentoring sessions, as well as the feedback and evaluation methods. Also, set some ground rules for communication, confidentiality, and feedback. By being clear about expectations, you can create a transparent and accountable mentoring relationship.

2 Show genuine interest and empathy

One of the key factors that influence trust and rapport is how much you care about your mentee as a person, not just as a learner. Show genuine interest and empathy for your mentee's challenges, achievements, aspirations, and feelings. Listen actively and attentively, ask open-ended and probing questions, and acknowledge and validate your mentee's emotions. Avoid being judgmental, critical, or dismissive of your mentee's perspectives and experiences. By showing genuine interest and empathy, you can create a supportive and respectful mentoring relationship.

3 Share relevant stories and experiences

Another way to build trust and rapport with your mentee is to share relevant stories and experiences from your own career journey. This can help you demonstrate your credibility, authenticity, and vulnerability as a mentor. You can share stories and experiences that illustrate your successes, failures, lessons learned, challenges overcome, or insights gained. However, be careful not to overshare, brag, or dominate the conversation. Make sure your stories and experiences are relevant, appropriate, and helpful for your mentee's learning and development. By sharing relevant stories and experiences, you can create a relatable and inspiring mentoring relationship.

4 Provide constructive and balanced feedback

Feedback is an essential part of mentoring, as it helps your mentee grow their skills, performance, and confidence. However, feedback can be a sensitive topic and affect the trust and rapport between you and your mentee. To provide constructive and balanced feedback, it is important to give it in a timely, specific, and actionable manner. Focus on the behavior, not the person; highlight the strengths and achievements while also pointing out areas for improvement. Speak positively and supportively with your language, tone, and body language. Additionally, invite feedback from your mentee and be open to learning from them. Finally, follow up on the feedback and monitor the progress and results. By doing so, you can create a growth-oriented and collaborative mentoring relationship.

5 Respect the boundaries

Maintaining professional boundaries with your mentee is essential for developing a safe and ethical mentoring relationship. Boundaries are the limits that define what is acceptable and unacceptable in the relationship, and can be related to time, space, topics, roles, emotions, or behaviors. To respect the boundaries, it is important to communicate and agree on them at the beginning and throughout the mentoring relationship. Additionally, be consistent and respectful of them, and do not cross or violate them. Be aware of any potential conflicts of interest, ethical dilemmas, or power imbalances. Also, be mindful of your own emotions, biases, and assumptions. If you encounter any boundary issues or challenges, seek support or guidance from others.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?