Mentoring Agreement
March 2021
Mentoring is a valuable development activity from which both mentees and mentors can gain a great deal.
We agree to undertake a voluntary mentoring relationship for mutual benefit. To ensure clarity, and to increase the likelihood of successful outcomes, we have agreed on the following terms for this relationship.
Roles
As a mentor, I will support you by:
Providing you with a safe and confidential space to freely discuss your challenges, successes, mistakes and aspirations at work, your career goals and your personal development
Respecting your agenda and what you want to talk about
Asking you questions to help you clarify and develop your own thinking
Challenging assumptions and offering different perspectives, based on my own experiences
Sharing insights from my work and career
Sharing practical tips and suggestions for solving problems, taking skillful action and developing yourself
Motivating you to make choices and take action, as appropriate for you in your situation
Encouraging self reflection and inspiring self-confidence
Genuinely caring about your current and future success and happiness at work
As a mentee, you will:
Consider carefully and share what you hope to gain from the mentoring relationship - what you want to achieve and what “success” looks like for you over the agreed time period
Come to mentoring conversations prepared to participate openly, with a starting point for discussion
Communicate your circumstances, needs and thinking - clearly, concisely and honestly
Listen to, discuss, question and challenge my ideas, suggestions and advice
Welcome constructive feedback, whether reinforcing or redirective
Bring your own ideas for discussion and activities to do together
Take ownership for your own personal development - reflecting on what we discuss, choosing what to act on and sharing outcomes
Confidentiality
We will both honour personal and professional confidences and will at all times seek to maintain a relationship based on mutual trust, respect and confidentiality.
Conversations
We initially agree to meet for an hour at a time, once per month, for six months.
However, we may adjust this by mutual agreement to ensure the meetings are useful for both of us.
We commit to communicating in advance if a planned conversation can no longer take place, respecting each others’ time and energy, but also respecting that circumstances change, sometimes unexpectedly.
Feedback
We will be open with each other about what’s working and what’s not in order to help ensure our mentoring conversations are productive.
In particular, you will provide me with feedback on your experience of the mentoring relationship to support my ongoing development of mentoring skills.