I’ve been curious about the idea of mentorship lately. What makes a good mentee? A good mentor? While there are probably some tried and true answers to this question, my hunch is that it depends significantly on the particular people involved in a mentee/montorship relationship.  What works well for one person may not work well for another. Personalities, communication styles, availability — all these factors affect the success of a mentee/mentor relationship. In my job search coming out of grad school, one of the things that’s high on my priority list is to be in an environment surrounded by bright, engaged people who know more than I do; where I can grow and learn as fast as I can. This is essentially about mentorship, hence my interest. 

I recently had an opportunity to ask Brian Verhoeven, Manager of Information Architecture at Forum One Communications, about mentorship:

EC: For you personally, what makes a good mentee? What do they do that helps take advantage of your ability to mentor them? What do they do that helps them to grow, and to utilize the knowledge and experience of the company and you personally?

BV: Curiosity, thirst for knowledge, and the desire to share that knowledge with others.

Brian relayed that to be most useful, knowledge sharing needs to be actionable. Rather than saying, “hey, isn’t this link cool?,” give him something he can do and act on.  Actionable, key takeaways from new pieces of knowledge are paramount.

He also noted that the most successful employees identify a need they see in a company and are then gung ho about filling that need. In other words, they don’t wait to be told how to improve things. They actively notice where they can have impact, and then dig right in.

Know of any good articles or resources on mentorship? Please leave them in the comments.