Belmont Mentor FAQ
Get answers to these questions:
What does a Belmont mentor look like?
How much time will mentoring take on a weekly basis?
What can I expect from the mentoring relationship?
What are the common hurdles to developing a meaningful mentoring relationship?
What does a Belmont mentor look like?
A mentor is an advisor, coach, influencer and fan wrapped into one. As an advisor, you will counsel your mentee on various life issues. As a coach, you will help your mentee lay out a game plan to achieve his goals. As an influencer, you will spend time with your mentee in an effort to develop a relationship. Once that relationship is strong, you will use that leverage to influence life choices. As a fan, you will cheer your mentee on to bigger and better things. You’ll celebrate successes and be present when failure takes place.
How much time will mentoring take on a weekly basis?
Depending on the particular model you are following, mentoring will take anywhere from 4 to 10 hours per month. School-based and other location-based models tend to take less time, especially if the program in partnering with another agency or organization. One on one mentoring tends to take more time.
What can I expect from the mentoring relationship?
Mentoring is a rewarding experience, both for the mentor and mentee. The quality of the mentoring relationship will have a great deal to do with not just how much time you invest, but how you invest. The best mentors are those who are intentional and take their role with seriousness. While this is true, it is important to understand that you have not committed to being a superhero. Your mentee will learn more from you as you share both your success and failures and speak to what you learned from both.
You’ll probably start the relationship by gauging your child’s interest in various activities and then doing those things together. As the relationship develops, you might find that this happens more naturally. Keep in mind that it is important to ask you mentee what kinds of things he would like to do instead of coming in with a plan.
Initially, you may encounter some awkward moments that exist when any relationship is in the formation stage. We encourage you to think of engaging, open-ended questions to ask your mentee. The mentor training will give you some ideas on how to go about asking such questions.
What are the common hurdles to developing a meaningful mentoring relationship?
The most common hurdle to get over when developing a mentoring relationship is the idea that mentors need to be super-human in order to have an impact. It has been our experience that kids are more concerned with your presence than with your abilities. Presence is about showing up in someone’s life and inviting that person into your life.
Another challenge in mentoring relationships is that mentors might lose interest if the relationship isn’t rewarding. Slowly, they will begin to withdrawal and spend less time with their mentee. It is important to begin mentoring with the understanding that it is a selfless act; one in which we, as mentors, are not seeking to get anything in return.
Lastly, you may feel a tremendous amount of pressure, wondering if you are meeting up to your mentee’s expectations. We encourage you to communicate regularly with your mentee about his expectations. More than likely, his expectations are not as high for you as yours are for yourself.
