Get Your Ducks In A Row! 7 Things To Remember As You Prepare To Be A Mentor Coach

Whether you’re a seasoned mentor coach or just starting out, there are some foundational practices that will help you optimize your mentor coaching so you can truly serve your mentee. Remember that this is process. As a coach we all continue to develop and grow our skills. The same is true when you are serving as a mentor. You will develop and grow as you practice your mentoring.

As we are planning for our Certified Mentor Coach program that will be starting in September, we thought about you, our coaching community, and want to share some of the foundational practices we feel are so important for all mentor coaches.

Make sure you have a different Agreement for mentoring than you use with a coaching client.
Review the ICF Mentor Coach competencies: http://coachfederation.org/credential/landing.cfm?ItemNumber=2210
Have the ICF Core Competencies available to use in mentoring. Find them here: http://coachfederation.org/credential/landing.cfm?ItemNumber=2206
Familiarize yourself with the ICF’s Core Competencies Comparison Table of ACC, PCC and MCC coaching. Find them here.
Mentoring is different than coaching. In mentoring, your experience informs your questions; where in coaching you don’t share your expertise in the session. Think about how you can adjust your mindset to do both – support the mentee’s skills plus discuss areas for growth.
Create trust and intimacy between you and your mentee. Let them know ahead of time exactly what they can expect from the mentoring overall and in each session specifically. Invite any questions and make sure you have answered all of them prior to the session.
Find opportunities to listen to other mentors work with their mentees and to have mentors listen to you being a mentor and give feedback.