How you can be a good mentor: 6 tips
We asked six of Ohio State’s best mentors what advice they would share for others working to guide the next generation.
[Illustration by Koivo]
Carmen Swain
Senior lecturer, College of Education and Human Ecology
Good mentoring requires being flexible in your approach. “When you get to the amount of experience I’ve had, you get to doing things a certain way,” Swain says. “But what’s been tried and true for me doesn’t necessarily work with everybody.”
Dan Thomas
Assistant director, Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male
Be consistently available, even if you’re busy. “I’m a very stretched individual in terms of tasks and obligations,” Thomas says. “But that is not an excuse if you decide to enter into that mentoring relationship. Because if they have something going on, they need you at that time.”
Sherée Greco
Production manager, Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts
Ask the mentees what they want, rather than assuming you know what they need. “To me, mentoring is figuring out what the student is trying to get out of the experience.” That requires building a strong relationship to find out what excites them and what they’re afraid of.
Chad Zipfel
Senior lecturer, Fisher College of Business
Listening first is crucial. Remember, Zipfel says: “This isn’t about you, it’s about them. I always try to push my mentees with more questions: What’s on your mind? What is the problem, what is the ask, what is the opportunity?”
Monica Giusti
Professor, Department of Food Science and Technology
It’s good for mentors to explore resources and techniques, but theory and practice can differ. Sharing experiences with other mentors can help. “‘How do you implement that? How do you interact directly with your mentees?’ And I think that for each person, you need to find what works for them.”
Kentaro Fujita
Professor, Department of Psychology
Mentoring is a skill like any other, but since there’s no structured training for how to do it well, be open to taking lessons from anywhere. That could be on the job, on the side and even from your mentees. “I credit my students for making me a better mentor,” Fujita says. “They have trained me as much as I’ve trained them.”
Want to be or find a mentor?
Students and alumni alike benefit from mentoring relationships. To express your interest, join the AlumniFire community and add mentoring to your profile. More is in the works for alumni mentors, too, so stay tuned.
