Mentoring individuals

Mentoring and personal (professional) coaching can look very similar on the surface. Where coaching is giving the individual the mandate and support to solve their problems with their own knowledge, mentoring is also about offering the individual the knowledge of the mentor. The reason for this can be for helping them solve a specific problem quicker, without requiring them to obtain the necessary experience beforehand. It can also be for lifting them up in a specific subject.

I have been mentoring (and coaching) many different individuals in different situations. My main mentoring topics have been around Agile and UX, but I have also been able to help out with strategic decisions around process, product, work relationships and career.

Two things I require from an individual who wants to be mentored by me is active participation (bring the topics, listen, question) and resilience (experimenting and learning takes time). A common setup is meeting for one hour every second week over half a year.