OLS-2: Mentor training workshop on mentoring and coaching: Group 1

tags: OLS-2 mentor-training

• Call time: Group 1: 09:00 - 12:00 UTC Check in your timezone
• Mentor: Tracey Rotsey, 360 training
• Check the signed up participants: Doodle link
• • Shared notes: https://hackmd.io/@ols-2/mentor-training-gr1

Table of content

• OLS-2: Mentor training workshop on mentoring and coaching: Group 1
  • Participants sign up
  • Questions
  • Introductions
    • Learning objectives
    • Reflections
    • Difference between mentoring and coaching
    • What are the benefits?
    • The benefits
    • Mentoring mindset
    • Mentoring Competencies
    • Different types of mentoring
    • What's your story?
    • Defining mentor-mentee relationship
    • Reflection activity
  • Mentoring model
    • Defining outcome
    • Exploration (strategies and methods)
    • Asking effective questions: Open vs close questions:
    • Supportive and active listening
    • Action planning
    • Mentoring model: Practical exercise
    • Measuring progress
    • Challenges
  • Feedback and actions
  • Questions to discuss later

Participants sign up

Name/pronouns/timezone

• Malvika / she/her / BST
• Arielle / she/her/ BST (UTC+1)
• Renato Alves / he/him / CEST (UTC+2)
• Markus Löning / he/him / BST
• Jez Cope / he/him / BST
• Le Bras / he / CEST/UTC+2
• Anelda van der Walt / she/her / UTC+2
• David Selassie Opoku / he/him / UTC
• Sonika Tyagi / she/her / AEST
• Patricia Herterich / she/her / BST
• Martina G. Vilas / she/her / UTC+2/CEST
• Melissa Burke / she/her / AEST
• Lilian Juma / she/her/ GMT+3
• Festus Nyasimi /he/him/ UTC +3

Malvika is taking notes and everyone is welcome to join in :D

Questions

1. How do you handle a mentorship relationship when it feels as if there is no chemistry/connection with a mentee?
2. Who is playing the role of coach in OLS?
3. How do cultural differences affect the mentorship relationship? +1
4. Related to previous sentence, what about english speaking potential barriers? +1
5. Does a mentor always have to be someone other than the line manager? I would like to think of myself as mentoring my employees while I am also their line manager?
6. How to co-mentor? 2 mentors for a project, or involving another experts in the call

Introductions

• Mel: I've supervised students and colleagues before but haven't officially mentored someone before. I want to understand how mentoring differs to supervising/managing and hints and tips on how to approach it.
• Aidan: Unofficial mentoring experience of people I've worked with previously - official mentor role in OLS-1, eLife Open Innovation Leaders program, and AAAS community engagement fellow program. Want to leave with ideas for structured ways of thinking about the mentoring process.
• Malvika: I would like to learn how to listen to our mentees :D Previous experience of mentoring colleagues in the last round of Open Life Sci
• Arielle: I've managed people before but this is my first time mentoring someone so I'm hoping to develop the differentiation between a "manager" and a mentor
• Renato: What I'd like to get out: How to assess if the mentoring is being effective.
• Jez: I'm hoping to build my confidence that I actually can be an effective mentor!
• Festus: I'm Festus new to official mentoring and I would like to learn more about listening and giving feedback to mentees
• Markus: I’ve mentored as a teaching assistant and as part of the GSoC programme; I’d like to learn about how to set up structure/framework to manage expectations, milestones and how to deal with situation when we frequently fail to meet these
• Maria: Have been a mentor but have never had any training for it so interested in any tips I can pick up here
• Patricia: Mentored in the first round of OLS for the first time and never had to officially supervise or line manage anyone. Would love some kind of framework to go back to as I reflect on the mentoring throughout this journey
• Sarah: I’m quite new to formal mentoring - I think I’ve been doing a lot of ad hoc mentoring when folks around me have had questions or needed help. So I’m looking to know a bit more about “what I’m supposed to be doing” :P
• David Opoku: I’ve mentored a number of people in the past. Looking forward to learning new skills on being an effective mentor.
• Anelda: Often in a mentoring role (either as part of something formal or just because it happens). Learning about boundaries and creating a positive experience for myself as mentor as well as my mentee. How to grow as mentor. Hard to solicit feedback from a mentee sometimes especially if it's not going great
• Martina G. Vilas: I have mostly done supervision of undergraduate/master students in research projects. It would be useful to understand how to best mentor someone who's project is their idea (and they are the actual experts at that!) and not something that comes from a supervisor/larger project.
• Sonika Tyagi: I have been in a manager role for nearly a decade now. I have only unofficially mentored people in the past. Open to picking up some tips on doing it effectively. Tips on providing tailored feedback, listening and managing expectations would be great.
• Yvan: I've supervised students and colleagues before but haven't officially mentored someone before. I want to understand how mentoring differs to supervising/managing and hints and tips on how to approach it (yes I copy/paste Mel sentence ;) )

Learning objectives

Reflections

What is mentoring and how does it work

1. What can mentoring relationship deliver?
2. The role, responsibilities and expectations of the mentor and the mentee
3. Exploring the critical skills and mindset of a mentor

Malvika

1. Accountability, sharing insights from experiences, helping mentees identify right resources
2. Communicating regularly, checking in and (re)setting and (re)evaluating expectations - which might change all the time +
3. Gaining mentoring skills as we go along. Accepting that we don't know everything and my role as a mentor is to nudge my mentee in the right direction and not "push them" towards what I hope they would do. +

Yvan

1. information about the fact that we (as mentors, maybe new in this function) can be mentoring someone -> going from maker towards helper, something like that. For the mentee, I think this can give more trust in their projects, as someone is there to ask questions and try facilitate the work of the mentee.
2. mentors need to be there for the mentee, and give some time to help the mentee.
3. mentor need to listen the mentee and be gentle ;) +1

Jez

1. For the mentee: access to expertise, networks, feedback, alternative viewpoints; for the mentor: contribute to a community, build someone's confidence, "give back"
2. Roles/responsibilities/expectations can be very variable, need to be discussed afresh within each mentoring partnership
3. Open and flexible mind-set: need to be supportive of the mentee and empower them, not impose wht you think might be the "right" thing to do

Arielle

1. Mentoring is a mutual growth jounrey that produces or develops new perspectives on problems or projects +
2. Role of mentor: Not solving the mentees problems yourself, instead offering tools and approaches to support the mentee, an outside perspective (sometimes neutral), encouraging the mentee to push themselves. Mentee: willing to take onboard the feedback from the mentor and trial it, looking to support but not handholding +
3. Skills: active listening, probing questions, problem-solving approaches, collaborative mindset, critical thinking, emotional intelligence

Renato

1. Experience, Lead by example, External perspective, rapport.
2. Challenging… should be discussed case-by-case - good communication. Manage expectation…
3. Critical thinking. Provocative questions. Forward/future looking - vision. Problem/challenge solving.

Anelda

1. Understanding of other people's experiences, challenges, and view points - especially people in other career types/roles/career stages;
2. Mentor: Support, confidence grower, experience share; Mentee: open to learn and listen; active participant
3. Empathic, patient, flexible, +

Sonika

1. Helping someone less experienced achieve their professional goals. (notes: provide information advise, guide. sounding board)
2. Together: Setting short/long term goals and expectations.Mentor: non-judgemental, supportive, flexible Mentee: open to feedback, respectful, willing to take an active role
3. Devloping trust relationship.

Markus

1. personal development, reflection on personal development
2. mentee: openness to learn, commitment to spend time/effort on learning; mentor: understanding of own limits of expertise, understanding of mentee's progress and needs
3. confidence to acknowledge one's own limits, openness to learn from mentee

David

1. Increasing confidence, access to increased professional networks and relationships, increased learning. +
2. Existence of trust, regular check-ins, establishing clear goals and objectives, clear channels of communication
3. Being more of a listener than a talker; employing skills that makes the mentee the centre of focus

Notes

• Set goals and objectives and manage expectations around that goal
• Allow mentees to hold accountability for their work
• Increased access to professional network
• identifying skill that you have and you can deliver but also identifying what is needed by your mentee and sharing those resources (contacts) with them
• Empowering mentees. Listen for a deeper understanding.
• Accountability lies with the mentee
• Mentoring ≠ managing; the manager sets expectations and knows a lot about the area of work, a mentor may not, mentoring is light-touch, driven by the mentee

Difference between mentoring and coaching

Mentoring	Coaching
Advising - Provide advice & guidance	Asking - Facilitate following a process
Tend to have expertise in the subject	Coaches don't need to have expertise at all to coach someone (theoretically can coach anyone in anything)
Share experience & guide a less-experienced colleague	Coaches may ask questions that can unlock a thought process unlike your own (constructive manner)
May also use coaching skills

What are the benefits?

Mentor	Mentee
Chance to give back and share your skills	Get to learn from someone who you look up to (maybe want to follow the same career path as them)
Listening skills	Access to network of people and expertise
New perspectives	New resources or sources of ideas
going from "maker" to "helper"	Opportunity to reflect upon one's own progress and learning experience
Facilitate and make a contribution to something you couldn't achieve on your own	Build trust in a long term (safe space)
Learn from mentees	Professional development
Build network	External / outside perspectives
Comfortable in asking difficult questions	Career advancement

• Screenshot of the notes from the Zoom annotation
  

The benefits

Mentoring mindset

• We are not accountable for what they do or don't achieve, but we can help them navigate their direction

Mentoring Competencies

• Set commitments before the end of the meeting - what will you talk about the next time you meet, what can your mentees do to have a constructive discussions the next time based on this commitment?

Different types of mentoring

What's your story?

Malvika
Skills: Resilience, empathy, problem solving, collaborative, goals setting
Experiences: Community, team-building, communication, design thinking in research, bioinformatics, research
Lessons: Leadership looks like everyone know what they are doing, but the reality is that everyone is learning as they go along. Helping other (collaboration) is the best way forward but you also need to check in with your self every now and then ti identify what you have learned and what you have achieved
What did I get right/wrong? -
Stories: PhD life, immigration, studies abroad, cultural context, stories from different community projects, OLS
Resources: Professional connections, computational training, bioinformatics, mamangement tools

Arielle
Skills: big picture strategy, problem solving, critical thinking, broad knowledge about the scientific ecosystem, experience in both industry and academia, community management
Experiences: managing events, managing teams, dealing with difficult bosses, community management
Lessons: Learned a lot about working adjacent to research, community management, I've got a lot of things wrong (but also a lot of things right!)
Stories: I have a lot of these…
Resources / expertise: specific networks I am a part of, different databases, practical templates

Yvan
Skills: technical ones and human ones (I hope ;) )
many experiences I can share, building regional working group / community(ies) to better understand issues regarding the use of some tools/concepts and learn things, keep people in touch between different communities / skills / managing team & project in academic context / creating a start-up using a "family"/user-friendly vision + open source and selling it to the major actor of the sector
learned a lot, every day. Learned that the manner I choose to operate (for my project/team management) is not so bad and maybe, at least sometime, better than others manners ;) + Community/ies is the more important (but I was thinking that from the beginning ;) !
almost everything got right! Even potential failures were real good points!
Each story related to my experiences can make my point ;)
Resources/expertise… good question!

Sonika
Skills: people/project management, problem solving, networking skills, technical skills
Experiences:diverse experience in academia and industry, big geogriphically distributed team management, working with interdisciplinary teams, community work, organising conferences/workshop events
Lessons: importance of choosing right mentors at right time. Developing up and down networks. Work-Life balance. Handling toxic people/environment
Stories: followed a non-typical career trajectory.. lots of things to share.

Jez
Skills: problem solving, logical, analytical, technical, project management, communication
Experiences: data management in a range of different contexts; contributing to open projects, especially written word/documentation;
Right/wrong: have failed in the past to provide enough structure & ensure that mentees take positive actions out of each meeting

Festus
Skills: Problem solving, Emotional intelligence, Empathy, Logical, Management and Networking skills.
Lessons: Listening skills, Importance of having good guidance, Patience
Experiences: Community buiding, Event planning, Research

Anelda
Right/Wrong & Lessons: I used to get really excited about being a mentor and really wanting to help things along, so would literally take over the role of the line manager/supervisor and run ahead with a project in the way I think it should be done (not really the definition of a mentor). I had to learn to step back and calm down and take things slower and help the mentee to grow even if it meant not going at the pace I wanted things to go. I still have to check in with myself all the time to make sure I'm not forcing my ideas onto the mentee and almost planting seeds and seeing which ideas resonate with them and which ones they develop, then going at their pace but helping them to set goals etc and making sure we're making progress
Experiences: Working in interdisciplinary environments, working across industry/NGOs/academia/government (different working cultures), working with folks from different career stages, working across cultures (Africa, US, Europe, Australia), working with non-native English speakers

David
Skills: Data literacy training, facilitation, entrepreneurship
Experiences: resource-constraints/low-tech environments, development space, farming, global experience (Africa, North America, South America, Europe and Asia)
Lessons: it helps to be fully invested as a mentor.
Right/Wrong: establishing confidence and trust early on / taking on too many mentees at the same time

Markus
I changed the focus of my studies and supervisors in my PhD, because I did not find what I was interested in at first; in this situation, I often heard that it wasn't possible, but in the end I was able to combine topics and find other people who shared my interest and were willing to supervise me; made me become more aware of transferable skills and appreciate different domains/methodologies in science.

Renato
Skills: Domain-specific/technical, empathy, transference
Experiences: hard to say without a thread to guide it
Lessons: Knowing too much about something can be harmful. Listen for the content not the way it's being said (words being used)
Got Right: Adjusting the vocabulary/jargon to the level of the mentee,
Got Wrong: Resilience, overcommitting, amount of work hours.
Stories: PhD life, personal/work balance or lack of, failures & successes and lessons from them

Patricia
Skills: some technical skills in running services and events, some basic community building skills
Experiences: working abroad for several years not in my mother tongue and in a variety of research institutions
Lessons: plenty, mainly around managing expectations and scoping work
Got Right: Finding the right people to uplift you
Got Wrong: Still need to work on improving communication - constant issue
Stories: unfinished PhD, personal/work balance or lack of, failures and lessons from them

Notes:

• How much of your story should you be willing to share?

  • Allowing yourself to be vulnerable, showing emotional intelligence, trust building, personal decision and being comfortable with what you wanna share, relating with your mentees and allowing them to gain perspectives

• Sarah: I think what is being said right now is addressing the uncomfortable feeling I have with “right” and “wrong” in this context. It’s a journey of learning and the fear of doing something “wrong” one of the bigger barriers to people participating in open science/open research

• Renato: Loving the "bounce question back at you". Having big internal dialogs right now :) .Realizing that some questions don't need to be asked but also that making the right questions is hard.

• Aidan: A question that I often worry over - am I (as an allocishet abled middleclass white man) better off mentoring other people with that demographic? Who I have a stronger link to the direct lived experience of and can work with them to see and work on mitigating the impact of their privilege?

  • We need to be aware of our privilges. But by limiting your interaction with similar people you will limit your creativity that diversity can unlock. Different insight and perspective is important for learning and innovation.
  • Key is to develop empathy - you may not have the lived experience but you can use your empathy to walk in someone else's shoes

Defining mentor-mentee relationship

• What we need to do define/manage expectation?
  Ask right questions

  • what do you wanna get out of this conversation?
  • What can we achieve today?
  • Based on what you learned, what did you find useful - challenging? How do use this new information?

• if the mentee feels stuck, help them explore their situation but don't do things for them

  • Be their sounding board, but if they start demanding too much time you need to also state your expectation - remind your mentees about what you are there to offer (not doing the work for them)
  • You are not an additional member of their team or their line manager - you are not driving their performance but you are there to hold space where your mentees can reflect on their progress
  • they are accountable for their work

• Duration of your commitment

  • 16 weeks in OLS
  • 30 minutes call (more if agreed upon) every 2 weeks
  • OLS confidentiality - Malvika will bring it back to the team

Reflection activity

1. How will you get started with your mentee
2. what Questions will you ask to define the relationship and expectations
3. How will you ensure you remain on track

Arielle

1. Already met but started by understanding each other's backgrounds, overall aims for the project, specific goals for the programme and the challenges they've already identified with the project (OLS has a good framework for the opening call!)
2. Will need to revisit this but: what are you hoping to get out of our discussions?
3. We have agreed a clear goal for the end of the programme so I think we'll take some time to check in with the progress and discuss any difficulties / roadblocks they've encountered

Malvika

1. Learning about what project they wanna work on, what goals they have set for themselves
2. Share with them what my role will be, how best we can use our meetings and time in OLS
3. Asking them about their learning process, how they are applying those skills in their work, checking in to see how they are feeling about their development

Patricia
Already met the mentee but more of an introduction and trying to understand where the planned project fits with their other priorities, I always find expectations a bit hard when they have no real understanding of the programme and also have never had a mentorship relationship. Will need to go back and do some more expectation setting and focus more on actions.

Anelda

1. Already met with mentee. First conversation was really about who they are, where they are at, and learning about their project. Also for them to learn about who I am, where I'm at because we're in very different parts of the world and also in very different jobs
2. We looked at the framework and guidelines provided by OLS and agree that we'll follow their suggestions as closely as possible to manage expectations. We're both comfortable with the way the programme is structured.
3. We've met 3 times and have a little ritual to get us started (each share one good thing that happened the past week in personal life and in work). Then we discuss the homework she had and then we plan what she could do in the week to come until we meet again. Next week she will share with me her idea of what it will look like if the programme is successful for her project. Then we'll figure out how to go about achieving that. She takes a lot of ownership which I really appreciates.

Jez

1. Already done! Followed the provided agenda: introductions all round, discuss expectations & goals
2. What do you want to achieve? What gaps do you have in your knowledge/skills? What do you think I can help with?
3. Concrete actions & timescales (driven by mentees); regular meetings

Yvan

1. already done, "just" introducing ourselves and try laugh a little bit
2. what is your project and goals
3. oganizing regular meetings

Markus

1. already done; ask for introductions to get to know them a bit better, their background, interests and hopes for the OLS programme
2. how can I help you? what things do you need help with? making concrete suggestions about what to discuss in the next calls
3. write down goals, agenda/objectives for next meeting, ask if objectives have been fulfiled in meeting

Sonika

1. introducing yourself and your background briefly. Understanding mentees project and expectations and goals.
2. Goal setting may also be done in the first call
3. setting roles and responsibilities.
4. length and frequency of conversations/meetings

Renato

1. Introduction, who everyone is, and where they came from. Get the chemistry going…
2. Where do you want to be at the end of the programme?
   Discussing the purpose of the call.
   Progress update. Not for pressure but for guidance.
3. The guiding doc from OLS was super helpful!! . Have a doc structured with a couple of points to guide. Reschedule what hasn't been covered and update with anything relevant.

Notes

• Psychological contract with mentees: these are unwritten but you need to state that clearly. You should set a boundary.
  • You used the word "contracting": is it useful to have a written agreement (maybe more or less formal) setting out expectations? - being crystal clear about expectations and navigating conversation and progress around that - not allowing it to drift.
• Purpose of mentoring: learning and development, advice on their career, give them options of what you can offer
• Manage expectation: set measurable goals and expectations, check in every now and then to see what is working and what we can do better.
• Adding values: important to push the mentees to add value to the conversation

Mentoring model

• Mentoring and coaching are forward facing: Setting goals for tracking progress and supporting your mentees for their development and empowerment.
• Backward form of support: Looking at the history of your mentee and providing training - it's counselor's job not mentor's :D
• Allow mentees to lead the conversation and reflect on their progress.
  • What do you want from your conversation?
  • What do we want to achieve at the end of this call?
  • What have you done in the last week? What did you learn? Why is that relevant for your project?
  • What is our action plan? - what do we do next? how do we achieve that?
    • This will set a renewed understanding and come back to the next call with new objectives

Defining outcome

Exploration (strategies and methods)

• you are there to listen, get the essence of what's going on, to identify if your mentee is on track
• Using our emotional intelligence not to mirror our bias

Asking effective questions: Open vs close questions:

Open Question:

Mentee can have exploratory questions and answers - explore their thoughts more deeply:

• what do you think …?
• tell me ..
• describe to me …
• talk me through …
• How, what, where, when, why …

Closed Question:

Defined specific answer (yes/no) - commitment questions inhibit people to think depper: Can/do/have you …?

Supportive and active listening

1. Repetition
2. Reflection of feeling
3. Reflection of meaning
4. Summary
5. Non-verbal techniques

• Arielle: I try but I'm not a consistently good listener! +10000 by many people

  • active listening online is much harder

• Renato: over empathising often gets me in trouble… feeling the struggles and wanting to actively help (hands on).

• Jez: body language doesn't always reflect what people might be thinking

• Capture essence of the conversation when you think your mentee is vague and is struggling to put their thought across

  • It helps mentees clarify their thought
  • Empowers them and makes them feel heard

• Summarising conversation: role playing

  • Ask you mentee what they did in the weekend? - based on their answer, summarise what they said in a way that nudges the conversation in the right direction.
  • You can start with: "What I am hearing is …", "This is what I understood …",

Notes

• It's a good way to start a meeting with gentle question so we get to know what energy level our mentees have
  • But also not diverge too far from the commitment-based discussion relating to their work
• Importance of listening and challenging our own ability to listen by asking open discussion

Action planning

• As a mentor - ask mentees to reflect and write down their goals, actions and outcome

Mentoring model: Practical exercise

• Define the outcome, issue, challenge or ambition
• Explore options & gain new understanding
• Action planning

It's about your mentee's experience and the value they get out of that

Role-play: 20 minute total

Practice using the mentoring model and skills: Feedback on one another and swap

• I am stuck on XXX
• I am not getting along with XXX in my team
• I don't know where to go next
• I am struggling to meet deadlines on my current project

Malvika and Yvan
"I understand that you have technical issue, and you don't have support from your team - and you have deadline" - "Did you look up for resource?" - "When I have this issue - I use XX resource, if it does not work for you let me know"

Notes

• Assignments in OLS might not be very clear for the mentees - so it's important to ask questions around "what do you think you you learned from this assignment" - "how is this useful for you"

• Community toolkits are relevant at different points - not everything will be useful all the time

  • Supermarket of mentoring and Open Science products

• OLS is like empty dessert that everyone is going to turn into Burning man

• It seems to be harder when it is obvious that the person has already put a lot of thought into their problem and pre-empt the questions you were about to ask!

• As a mentor you don't have to have the same experience or answer to everything, but don't underestimate your skills "based on my experience, how can I bring value to this discussion" - build accountability by shared thinking

• Practice the questioning techniques - often as mentor we want to jump in and answer the question, but allow yourself to be surprised and delighted by the answers that your mentees can answer

• Was that session actually mentor practice or just therapy for a lot of us? x

Measuring progress

Notes

• Informal record: In OLS we have a hackMD notes with prompts and assignments
• Encourage feedback: don't answer everything but explore
• Reflection from both sides: Shared thinking

Challenges

Typical challenges

Notes: The Role of acknowledging the spoil

• Getting trapped in narrative: by asking question or reflecting on what would this person ask in this situation
• Empathy, and goal oriented question
• Take a step back to understand what the real question/problem is
• "I am going to reflect on what you are saying" - - Acknowledging the spoil: Start with "Can I have your permission to mention something here that might be unpleasant?" - Respond with "When you say this - what I hear - this may be discouraging"
  • Use empathy, address the issue, come back to what your mentee

Feedback and actions

Thank you! This was a great overview and has made me feel more confident that I can be a 'good' mentor. I only wish that I had done this earlier. Can you recommend any further readings

From Sonika Tyagi to Everyone: (1:01 pm)

Thank you so much, this was a great session. Learnt a lot

From Aidan Budd to Everyone: (1:01 pm)

I learned a lot very quickly and enjoyed it greatly. I am going to go back to my mentees and re-do the first conversation. THANK YOU!

From Patricia Herterich to Everyone: (1:01 pm)

Sad to not hear the answers to the questions - lots to think about though :) Also +1 for reading recommendations to keep reflecting

From Renato Alves to Everyone: (1:01 pm)

I wish I would have had this this workshop 5 years ago. Thanks a lot. It was awesome in so many ways.

From Yvan Le Bras to Everyone: (1:02 pm)

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Thank you so much Tracey!
Really appreciated this session

From Lillian Juma to Everyone: (1:14 pm)

Thank you!

From Melissa Burke (she/her) to Everyone: (1:14 pm)

Thank you!

From Anelda Van der Walt to Everyone: (1:14 pm)

Thanks very much Tracey and OLS for organising it and everyone for your input and contributions and questions!

From Jez (he/him) Cope to Everyone: (1:14 pm)

Thank you so much!

From Markus Löning (he/him) to Everyone: (1:14 pm)

Thank you!

From Maria Doyle to Everyone: (1:15 pm)

Thanks Tracey!

Actions to take after the session

• Prepare open questions for your next mentee call
• Lots of people keen for reading recommendations

Questions to discuss later

• See section above Introductions - line 61 onward

1. How do you handle a mentorship relationship when it feels as if there is no chemistry/connection with a mentee?
   • Always have open discussions and get their feedback
   • Your relationship should not always be about chemistry but about what your conversation with them brings to the table
   • Check in if you need to re-contract somewhere
2. Who is playing the role of coach in OLS?
   • In OLS there is a blurry line between coach and mentor - we can use coaching techniques as a mentor
3. How do cultural differences affect the mentorship relationship? +1
   • Being aware of cultural difference is important
   • Diversity is important for innovation, creation, and idea development
   • Demography may have a role in what your mentee want to achieve in career
4. Related to previous sentence, what about english speaking potential barriers? +1
   • Asking your mentees what they need - do they understand you well? do they need translation?
5. Does a mentor always have to be someone other than the line manager? I would like to think of myself as mentoring my employees while I am also their line manager?
   • Line manager can mentor their staff and the relationship may last many years.
   • Often people want mentors from outside their industry
6. How to co-mentor? 2 mentors for a project, or involving another experts in the call. And on the flip side: several of us are mentoring teams rather than individuals: do you have any advice for this?
   • Co-mentors should chat about how they want to work with their mentees
   • get them together as teams and discuss where you can add value, come to an agreement - explain your roles - discuss the problem solving as a team