Reference no: EM132840396

As a mentor, your mentee will likely come to you with problems, issues, challenges, etc. and ask for your feedback, suggestions, or magic answer (Lamberton, 2015). It would be very easy for you to tell your mentee what he or she should do, how he or she should fix the situation (be Dr. Fix It), but that would not be teaching the mentee how to solve his or her own problem. In addition, it could make a dependency on you which would not be the healthiest situation. Let's face it, many of us like being the "hero", the "fire fighter", being able to swoop in and "save the day". It's a great feeling to know that you told someone how to fix a situation and it worked. You may have helped the mentee resolve the issue but you gave the mentee the fish rather than teaching the mentee how to fish so that he/she could feed himself/herself. To maximize the opportunity for learning and growth, it is best to help guide the mentee to reach their own conclusion on how to resolve the issue.

So how do you balance wanting to help your mentee fix the issue (giving them the fish) versus helping the mentee learn how to figure out the solution on their own (teaching them how to fish)?

References

Lamberton, N. (2015). Top five causes of mentoring dysfunction. Retrieved from https://nebocompany.com/blog/-280