You ask: “Who can be a mentor?” My answer is: “Everyone, but not everyone will be comfortable in this role.” And this “but” is crucial here.
Any expert can be a mentor, but…
To be a mentor in a field you need to have knowledge and experience. If you have them, there is nothing stopping you from starting to share them with others.
Anyone with experience can be a mentor, but…
Mentoring involves the person who is mentoring bringing with him or her experiences that he or she already has arranged, cataloged and packed in a drawer with memories. She still knows where they are and can reach for them, but they no longer evoke strong emotions in her.
The role of the mentor is to accompany the mentee in his or her development, not to crash into his or her own reefs and rescue himself or herself from the past. Therefore, a mentor/mentee of convenience can be those who have lived through something, worked through the experience (even if it was very difficult) and learned from it.
Anyone who can talk can be a mentor, but…
In mentoring, the ability to talk is crucial, but a good, valued and respected mentor will only be one with whom others want and enjoy talking. It has to be someone who can have a two-way dialogue, who can listen and put his positive foot print, show himself in full glory, but do it in a way that does not take away from the mentee’s space.
In mentoring, it is not enough to speak, you still need to listen and hear. Be authentic about it. It is also important not to throw challenge-exams, but to use tasks to develop the mentee.
Who do you think is a mentor/mentee?
First of all, to those who, sitting across from the mentee, put a mirror between themselves and that person, in which they look through and see only themselves. Mentee is then a tool for self delight. Of course, and there is a place for this in mentoring, but the mentee must not be blindsided in the process. It is better to reflect each other in each other’s eyes.
The conclusion?
The effectiveness of mentors and developing mentees is directly proportional to how much attention we give to the mentee and inversely proportional to how much attention we give to ourselves.
