Before engaging in mentorship, it is important to assess your readiness by understanding what mentorship involves, considering whether mentorship is right for you, and determining your motivations. It is important to reflect on what is driving you to participate in a mentoring relationship. Both mentees and mentors should authentically reflect on their intrinsic motivations, intentions, goals and desired outcomes. Understanding and reflecting on your motivations to participate will make you likelier to persist in your mentoring relationships (Vallerand, Deci & Ryan, 1987). Intrinsic motivation, which involves engaging in activity purely for the pleasure and satisfaction, is associated with creativity, enjoyment and high-quality learning. In comparison, extrinsic motivation involves engaging in an activity for the sake of achieving a separate outcome, such as a promotion, increased pay or other reward. It is common to have a balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation when it comes to career goals and activities. Assess your motivation for mentorship to see if committing to the mentoring relationship is something you will both find beneficial (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

It is important to spend some time thinking about what you want out of your mentorship experience. Since mentoring may involve strangers and people you know, the most successful relationships happen when everyone has already thought through their definitions of mentoring and their own preferences, parameters and motivations. Confer with your mentorship partners to see whether they share your view of mentoring. Having these initial discussions will aid in the relationship’s success and mutual benefits for all involved.

Questions for mentors

• What interests me about being a mentor?
• What are my goals and what do I hope to learn from the experience?
• Am I interested in contributing to the growth and development of other instructors
• Am I willing to commit time and energy to fostering a productive mentoring relationship?
• Am I interested in analyzing my teaching and learning skills and experience, and sharing this reflection with another instructor?
• Am I willing to learn alongside my mentee?
• Am I willing to provide critical feedback?
• Am I willing to open my teaching practice to another instructor?
• In what form of mentorship am I interested in participating?
• How many mentees do I want to work with?
• Am I open to working with a mentee from a distance?
• How might this align with my professional development plan?
• What aspects of teaching and learning do I want to strengthen in my own practice?

Questions for mentees

• What interests me about being a mentee?
• What are my goals and what do I hope to learn from the experience?
• Am I interested in growing my teaching practice through mentorship?
• Am I willing to commit time and energy to fostering a productive mentoring relationship?
• In what areas of my teaching practice am I most interested in receiving help?
• Am I willing to learn alongside my mentor?
• Am I willing to open my teaching practice to another instructor?
• In what ways am I willing to receive and act on feedback about my teaching practice
• In what form of mentorship am I interested in participating?
• How many mentors do I want to work with?
• Am I open to working with a mentor from a distance?
• How might this align with my professional development plan?
• What aspects of teaching and learning do I want to strengthen in my own practice?

adapted from “The Mentorship Guide for Teaching and Learning,” by Barrette-Ng et al,  Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary, shared with a CC BY NC 4.0 license.