Mentorship, like any relationship or team building, occurs in stages. Approaching the opening and closing of the mentorship with care ensures you and your mentee will share expectations, goals, and be able to debrief the experience with each other to continue to improve.
Framework curated by Meghann Coleman, Director at MindFrame Connect
As a mentee, it’s important to do your research before meeting with a mentor to gain an understanding of their background, experience, and particular areas where they can provide support. It’s also beneficial to connect with peers who have worked with a mentor before to understand how best to be prepared for your interaction.
Any experienced mentee will tell you that the more you connect with mentors, the more you recognize their patterns and personas. Understanding the mentor persona prior to meeting with them will provide you with a roadmap for your experience and what questions to ask to get the most out of your time.
MindFrame Connect has identified six key mentor personas with a proposed action plan for approaching your time with them.
Persona Insights Mentor
Characteristics
Wants to drill into your business quickly
Wants to understand who they can connect you with
Offers one insight to help you move forward
Action Plan
Be ready to explain business in a quick and concise fashion
Based on their background, be prepared to ask for a specific connection (i.e. into to industry leader)
Provide context on a particular area you would like their insight on
Persona Risk Mentor
Characteristics
Wants to know your biggest risk as a business
Wants to know how you move your business to the next level
Wants to understand how you prioritize
Action Plan
Come with a risk identified that you want to talk through
Be prepared to share a plan to move business to next level and how you will prioritize
Identify your top priorities for the next few months
Understand potential risks, long-term and short-term, and how to mitigate them
Persona Pitch Mentor
Characteristics
Wants you to pitch them your business
Uses the pitch to dissect business and analyze deficiencies
Makes you re-pitch to improve
Action Plan
Come prepared to pitch your business
Be open to feedback and analyzing gaps in your business
Be prepared to re-pitch on the spot
Persona How Can I Help you Mentor
Characteristics
Wants you to provide guidance on how they can support and most effective
Wants to understand the needs from the mentee directly to support and guide most effectively
Action Plan
Be prepared to ask for specific help based on their skill set
Research their background and experience so you have context on how to leverage their strengths
Persona Venture Capital Mentor
Characteristics
Wants to know how you help them 10x their investment in your company as fast as possible
Approaches everything with efficiency and focus
Action Plan
Understand your financials and a plan for the next 18-months
Be ready to demonstrate how you plan to focus and prioritize to get to scale
Persona Framework Mentor
Characteristics
Uses their preferred framework to dissect business quickly
Process oriented and focused on efficiency
Action Plan
Research mentor prior to meeting to better understand their approach
Come to meeting with clear agenda and what you want to get out of interaction
Share your own frameworks that you use to scale
Persona Personal Growth Mentor
Characteristics
Focuses more on the individual than the business
Primarily interested in developing leaders of start-up companies
Doesn’t focus on growing the founder’s business; takes pride in growing them as an individual, so they can then grow their own business
Action Plan
Research mentor prior to meeting to better understand their approach
Be honest and transparent about your personal goals and where you see gaps
Be prepared to share personal growth areas that they can support you
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