What Makes a Mentor?

There's no single model, but experts say most successful mentors:

• Believe in the mentoring process--often as former protégés themselves
• Commit to spending the time necessary to do the job well
• Love teaching
• Enjoy developing processes and road maps
• View mentoring as a partnership (rather than one-way instruction)
• Appear confident and professional--but also open and approachable
• Exhibit genuine interest in their protégés' careers
• Communicate clearly
• Listen well
• Take a positive, creative approach to problem-solving
• Provide constructive, nonjudgmental feedback
• Wish to “give something back” to their organizations or professions
• Track their protégés progress even after formal mentoring ends

Above all, says Amy Langer, CPA and Salo LLC founding partner, a mentor is “someone you'd want to follow. A leader.”

– A.S.

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