Mentoring Tips

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association offers a Mentoring Manual with great tips for both the Mentee and Mentor. Good listening skills and question-asking are key for quality mentoring. Some points addressed in the manual for mentors include:

• Ask open-ended questions to get your mentee to open up as much as possible (Examples: How did you decide to major in communication sciences and disorders? What are your longer term goals?)

• After you have listened fully to a response, ask good follow-up questions to demonstrate genuine interest. (Example: After you’ve completed your internship, what do you hope to do next to move to the next step?)

• If you do not understand something, try to paraphrase it to be sure you understand what the person is trying to say. (Example: So what I think you’re saying is that you want to broaden your knowledge of opportunities…).  Remember, associations and non-profits are a great resource for learning more about individual, group and organizational development.

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