Good Questions To Ask A Mentor
Through mentorship, you can tap into the expertise, knowledge, abilities, and experience of a successful businessperson or senior employee. The primary purpose of having a mentor is to connect with someone with more knowledge and experience than yourself in order to share advice, offer you guidance, and serve as a sounding board for your ideas.
As a mentee, you are free to ask your mentor anything that bothers you about your business or career. But whenever you are interacting with your mentor, you must ask the right questions. In this article, you will learn some good questions to ask a mentor.
Questions To Ask Your Mentor
When one of the famous mentors in your field agrees to see you, you hope that the weekly or monthly mentoring sessions will help you grow your business or career. But a few months into the relationship, the regular meetings might not invigorate you like before.
This typically happens when the conversations with your mentor become repetitive. To avoid this, you must keep the conversations interesting by asking the right questions.
Questions About Expertise And Self-Improvement
● Where do you believe my strengths lie?
● How can I develop the right amount of discipline to achieve my goals in this industry?
● What are the essential skills that I should develop to grow quickly in my career?
● What are some of the things in your career that you regret not having done earlier?
● How do I effectively manage and prioritize my time accordingly?
Questions About Their Success Stories
● Do you ever get impostor syndrome? How did you learn to get over it?
● Did you have a hard time starting out in this industry?
● What are some of the most challenging choices you made to get where you are in your career?
● Did you experience some major setbacks in your business/career path? How did you bounce back?
● What are some of the instances that you would have done differently?
Questions About Career Growth And Development
● How can I refine key skills for my career?
● How can I stay competitive in my line of work?
● How can I apply my strengths in my daily work?
● Who should I connect with to improve my career prospects?
● How is my industry likely to change in the next five years? In the next ten?
Questions About Leadership
● What leaders do you look up to for inspiration?
● What are some books you can recommend on leadership?
● How do you keep your team motivated?
● What qualities are lacking among today’s leaders?
● How do you continue to grow and develop as a leader?
Questions About Entrepreneurship And Business
● What do you enjoy most about entrepreneurship? What is the hardest thing about it?
● What are some mistakes you wish you could have avoided?
● What advice would you give to newbie entrepreneurs?
● How do you brainstorm and finalize business ideas?
● What are the biggest mistakes first-time entrepreneurs can make?
● How do you plan to grow your business or entrepreneurial mindset?
● What was the toughest moment in your business journey? How did you overcome it?
● What are some of the challenges you’ve ever faced when raising capital for a business?
Tips On How To Ask Your Mentor The Right Questions
Asking the right questions is more of a skill that you learn through practice and advice. Here are some of the best steps to follow when asking your mentor questions.
Ask Clear, Specific Questions
Always ask questions that are clear, precise, and relevant to your mentor’s expertise. Usually, mentors are supposed to guide you to deal with specific issues in your business or career. Asking a more specific question means your mentor will be in a better position to give you more actionable advice.
Ask Questions That Trigger Meaningful Conversations
Frame the questions in a way that gets the ball rolling and leads to meaningful conversations. Ensure that the questions you ask help you to know your mentor better. For example, you can ask them questions that will compel them to tell you about their business or career journey. You can even ask questions that are more specific to certain issues in your career or theirs.
Avoid Rhetorical Questions And Small Talk
Your first mentorship meeting will always feel a bit awkward. So, do not try to force conversations by asking rhetorical questions or engaging in small talk. The best way to avoid such discussion is to ask specific questions relevant to your career or business.
Prepare Yourself Properly
Don’t embarrass yourself by going to a mentorship meeting unprepared. The relationship between you and your mentor is based on your need for self-improvement. Therefore, your mentor expects you to be fully prepared with specific questions.
In summary, you need to keep in mind that the success of your mentorship sessions will depend on the type of questions you ask your mentor. Also, remember that finding the right mentor is just one part of the equation. You need to be armed with good questions that will generate practical advice.