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15 Invaluable Traits That Make A Good Mentor Great

Forbes Coaches Council

While a good mentor can help a professional learn more about their field, a great mentor can contribute significantly to their mentee’s overall career success and personal growth. Exceptional mentors have more than expertise to offer—they also possess unique traits that elevate their effectiveness in helping others find their way and excel on their career journey.

Below, 15 Forbes Coaches Council members explore qualities shared by the best mentors and how these attributes uniquely enable them to help others find success. Regardless of which side of the mentor-mentee relationship one may fall on, understanding these powerful traits can be the key to unlocking the full potential of a mentoring partnership.

1. Follow-Through

A mentor can demonstrate that they are truly invested in you not only by being available to listen and respond, but also by caring enough to follow up after you talk with their additional thoughts, suggestions or even a simple expression of support. Continuity builds trust, and follow-through breeds a mentoring relationship that can endure. - Kathy Morris, Under Advisement, Ltd.

2. Empathy

Empathy powers mentorship! Mentors who remember how challenging career growth can be and can extend that understanding to their mentees provide such an amazing benefit. They are letting their mentees in on the “secret” that the road to career success is not easy, despite how others make it seem. Additionally, demonstrating high emotional intelligence in this relationship paves the way for mentees to do the same. - Emily Kapit, MS, MRW, ACRW, CPRW, ReFresh Your Step, LLC

3. The Ability To Pivot

The best mentors use situational mentoring. They know when to coach and when to teach, and they pivot between these two developmental methods. They teach by explaining how to approach a situation when their skills or experience far outweighs that of their protege. They coach by unlocking the protege’s own insights and solutions when the protege has the transferable skills. Pivoting best serves your protege’s growth. - Loren Margolis, TLS Leaders

4. Supportiveness

The best mentor I’ve had was one who made it clear that his door was always open to me and that the space was safe to bring in sticky or challenging professional situations. Together, we explored all the possibilities that might be available to me, versus him telling me what he did in a similar instance. He supported the decisions I made and held me accountable for them. He supported my development consistently. - Lisa Walsh, Beacon Executive Coaching


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5. Belief In Their Mentee

A great mentor shows that they believe in their mentee. What I often observe with my clients is that the simple notion of there being someone out there who truly believes in them and in their potential gives them wings to fly. - Dorota Klop-Sowinska, DoSo! Coaching

6. A Transparent Approach

A mentor who shares thoughts and opinions honestly and respectfully helps build trust and opens the door to ongoing, unfiltered dialogue. Personally, I have had mentors who were very closed up about their own experiences, which took away from the mentorship experience. Mentorship is a partnership that revolves around risk-taking. Investing in others is a risk worth taking. - Kurline J Altes, KURLINEJSPEAKS LLC

7. A Progressive Mindset

It’s exquisitely tough to not be a great mentor when you are getting better yourself every day. A progressive mindset helps you to help your mentees make daily progress on their own by using you as a role model and a beacon—an example of what is possible when they keep their focus on progress. - Alla Adam, Alla Adam Coaching

8. A Focus On The Person, Not The Problem

From personal experience as a mentee, one quality of a great mentor is that of focusing on the person, not the problem. A good relationship here is key to the quality of the outcomes. An empowered relationship has intimacy. Consulting, in contrast, is task-oriented, not relationship-oriented. The consultant is held as an expert. A good mentor bridges the gap, bringing more coach-like qualities. - Duncan Skelton, Duncan Skelton Coaching Ltd

9. Unbiased Listening

The most important skills are to listen acutely and not to project one’s own biases and experiences onto the mentee. It’s important to help the mentee think through the actual issues and underlying motivations for addressing the challenges at hand. - Carol Geffner, CB Vision LLC.

10. Listening With Intention

A great mentor possesses the ability to listen with the intent of offering support. Explained another way, the best mentors listen to mentees with the intention of providing thoughts and support that are relevant, current and challenging. Engaging in this way, and with this intent, drives a valuable connection that is deeply invested in the development of the mentee. - Steve Shrout, Steve Shrout Coaching

11. Relevant Experience

Relevant experience is vital to the mentoring process. Mentors who can share how their experiences shaped and impacted them can provide valuable insights for those whom they are mentoring. Working with a mentor who has “been there, done that” can help the protege to understand and validate their own experiences. - Evan Roth, Roth Consultancy International, LLC.

12. Presence

The best mentors I've had are people who are present in the moment and not easily distracted. When they are engaging with you, you know that you are the most important person in their world at that moment and there's nothing else they would rather be doing than engaging with you. In a world full of easily distracted people, presence is a refreshing mentor trait. - Billy Williams, Archegos

13. Curiosity

Curiosity is an important trait for a great mentor. No one wants to learn from someone who “knows it all.” Asking questions helps you test assumptions and identify limiting beliefs, so you can meet a mentee where they are and help them go where they want to go. - Cindy Lamir, Impact Business Coaches

14. Self-Empathy

Effective mentors have self-empathy, especially in the forms of self-awareness and self-advocacy. A mentor cannot cultivate in another what they do not possess and exemplify. Self-awareness includes understanding one’s blocks and working to eliminate them. Self-advocacy includes establishing one’s boundaries and working to uphold them. Empathy is extended, inside-out, not externally generated. - Ophelia Byers, SitchRoom®

15. A Strengths-Based Focus

The best mentors see and highlight the strengths of the mentee before they focus on areas for development. By building people up first, they help create the resilience and self-confidence needed to address areas for improvement. - Christy Charise, Strategic Advisor

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