{"id":842,"date":"2020-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/seven-characteristics-of-an-effective-mentor\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T05:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:00:11","slug":"seven-characteristics-of-an-effective-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/seven-characteristics-of-an-effective-mentor\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven characteristics of an effective mentor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSeven characteristics of an effective mentor\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Mentorship is a good way to bring more youth into your industry, attract and retain employees, and advance individual careers and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, what makes a good mentor? To answer that question, I turned to the experts.* Here\u2019s what they list as the top qualities of effective mentors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Active listener<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Good mentors are genuinely interested in the people they are mentoring. They know how to ask enlightening questions and value the opinions of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Trustworthy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They build a bond of trust by following through on their commitments, providing a safe environment for open discussions, and always keeping the mentee\u2019s best interests in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Honest<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Effective mentors are objective, fair, and diplomatic in their feedback and guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Knowledgeable<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They stay on top of what\u2019s happening in their field and have the know-how and experience to provide sound advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Respected<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Colleagues and other professionals respect them and they have a network of contacts that can be used to open doors and create opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Willing to share<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They truly want to share what they know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Motivational<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As positive role models, themselves, they motivate by example and have the drive to see people succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Characteristics of an effective coaching and mentoring relationship<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These characteristics aren\u2019t just concepts or buzzwords \u2013 they are pillars for building a stronger, more positive, and ultimately, more impactful mentor-mentee relationship. For example, a mentor who truly practices becoming an active listener might detect personal strengths or challenges in a mentee that would go unnoticed by others. Likewise, a mentor who maintains the trust and respect of his or her peers by staying knowledgeable in the field is likely to have a wider and more valuable professional network, placing the mentor in a better position to open up career opportunities for the mentee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you want to be a mentor, or you\u2019re selecting one for yourself or a company program, these seven characteristics are key. Of course, mentors should also have some mentorship training if they are involved in a structured program that requires regular meetings, goal setting, and evaluations.
\nAnd finally, look for the best match. Some programs will do this by having both the mentor and mentee complete forms asking what they want to get out of a mentorship relationship and other important matching questions. In the end, a successful mentorship starts with a good relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Sources:<\/em>
\n7 key qualities of an effective mentor, Inc.<\/em>
\n5 qualities to look for in a mentor, Forbes<\/em>
\n9 characteristics of a good mentoring relationship, Huffington Post<\/em>
\nCharacteristics of a good mentor\/coach, Federal Library & Information Center Committee<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note: This article was originally published August 2016 and has been updated for relevance. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mentorship is a good way to bring more youth into your industry, attract and retain employees, and advance individual careers and businesses. But, what makes a good mentor? To answer that question, I turned to the experts.* Here\u2019s what they list as the top qualities of effective mentors: 1. Active listener Good mentors are genuinely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":1258,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[153,138,152],"business_type":[40],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[96,95],"imagine_tag":[230,231],"coauthors":[522],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-leadership","tag-growing-a-business","tag-leadership","tag-starting-a-business","business_type-small-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-us","author_name":"Deb Carpenter-Beck","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/05\/UK_CannyMilk_SageOne_181215-84.jpg","imagine_tags":{"230":"Small business","231":"Start up business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/1258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}