Mentoring can be personally and professionally rewarding. (Find out more about how mentors benefit from mentoring someone.) The prospect of agreeing to be a mentor can be daunting, especially if you’ve never been one before.

Here are some simple steps you can take that can help you decide whether to agree to act as a mentor:

• Assess whether you feel committed to helping someone else grow personally and professionally.
• Assess whether you have qualities that make for a good mentor.
• Assess the personal and professional benefits you might get out of mentoring.
• Assess whether you have the time to devote to a mentoring relationship.
• Determine whether the particular person is someone you wish to invest in.
• Evaluate what you have to bring to a mentoring relationship with this particular mentee.
• Assess what you might learn through a relationship with this particular mentee.
• Assess whether there are any risks to entering into a mentoring relationship with this particular mentee (for example, a perception of bias or concern that the mentee’s performance might reflect poorly on you).

Self-assessment tool

Still wondering if you have the skills needed to be a good mentor?