The thought of becoming a mentor can be a daunting prospect. The idea of guiding someone else in their career can feel like a big responsibility: for example, what if you are asked questions you don’t know the answer to?
Be assured that these feelings are normal, and no one can know the answer to everything. In fact, this is one of the key benefits of becoming a mentor: it will give you exposure to new challenges that you might otherwise not experience. Your role will be to work with the mentee to look at options, evaluate these and come up with a solution.
The role of mentor isn’t to have all of the answers. It is to be able to share your knowledge, perspective and experience, to work with the mentee, and to act as a sounding board for their ideas and proposed solutions. Your role will be to ensure that they look at as many different options and scenarios as possible. Even if you don’t have the answers, you are likely to have a very good idea of how they can go about finding the answer.