Mentor roles, responsibilities and best practices

1. Mentor Cheat-
sheet
Role, responsibilities & best practices
Explore UiPath Community Mentorship.
Learn how to get the best out of your mentorship relationship

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What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is sharing knowledge, skills, and life experience to guide another towards reaching their full potential. It is
a journey of shared discovery. It is a people-focused development process that enables both the mentor and the
mentee to grow, learn, transform, and accomplish great goals.
By choosing to be a mentor you choose to pay it forward. Just by sharing your experiences and your knowledge, you
can positively impact the careers of others. And, at the same time, you can learn new things and expand your
horizon, because mentoring is a two-way street.
What’s in it for you
 You can share your expertise and knowledge.
 You have an opportunity to build or strengthen your leadership skills.
 You can enhance your skills in coaching, counselling, listening, and modelling.
 You contribute to the professional development of someone else.
 You can gain insights and different perspectives from more junior professionals.
 You give back to the community.
 You invest and make an impact in the automation world.
 You connect with other great professionals who are also mentors.
 You are exposed to different mentees with challenges, ideas, solutions and from various industries.
 You are invited to events for mentors organized by the UiPath Community team
Your role
As a mentor, your primary role is to provide guidance and support your mentee/s on their journey, helping them cover
their developmental needs. Effective mentoring doesn’t just happen. It depends on active involvement of both mentor
and mentee/s throughout the process.
Your responsibilities
 Prioritize the mentoring session. Mentees invest time preparing for these sessions. Try to prevent other
demands from bumping the session from your calendar.
 Set aside time and space. Ensure that you will be uninterrupted during the mentoring session.
 Prepare for the session. Review any email correspondence and notes you may have from previous
sessions.
 Give your full attention to your mentee/s. Let go of other urgencies, clear your mind, and focus on helping
the mentee during the session.
 Communicate openly and practice active listening. Focus fully on the mentee/s and show active verbal
and non-verbal signs of listening.
 Share resources. Collect and share any resources that might be useful to the mentee/s.
 Share experiences. Be open to sharing your mistakes, failures and lessons learned.
 Wear multiple hats:
 Coach to advise the mentee/s on how to set and accomplish their goals.
 Sponsor or champion to provide guidance and help increase the mentee/s exposure to new
experiences. Celebrates milestone and achievements with the mentee/s.
 Teacher to provide learning opportunities.

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 Protector to provide a safe environment in which the mentee/s can make mistakes without losing
credibility.
 Counsellor to enhance the mentee/s self-esteem through supportive, non-judgmental discussions.
 A role model to walk the talk and demonstrate the behaviours necessary for success.
Guidelines
Whilst there may be some variation in your mentoring relationship, these guidelines are a great place to start if you
have not mentored anyone before. Equally, for those more experienced mentors out there, re-reviewing guidelines from
time-to-time can be a valuable way of ensuring you are staying on track with your mentoring.
The Introductory Meeting
Once you were matched with your mentee, it is time to have the first meeting with them. Whether over a phone call,
video call or in-person meeting, an introductory meeting is an essential first step for mentoring. The introductory
meeting should cover off the following points and it is important to discuss these openly and honestly, straight away:
o How often should you both meet or speak?
o How long should the mentoring relationship last?
o What can the mentor offer?
o What is the mentee looking for?
Do not be afraid to set the expectations at this stage – it makes the entire mentoring process a lot easier and you will be
starting off on the right foot. The meeting can last however long both parties wish for it to. We would recommend at
least 45 minutes in the first meeting, as this can help both parties to get to know one and other and really discuss the
objectives for the mentoring relationship. If you are conducting the mentoring relationship virtually, we would always
recommend video calling, where possible. Video calling will add a more personal approach to the relationship and help
you to begin to build rapport straight away.
Setting the Expectations
Often referred to as ‘contracting’, this is something we reference a lot. It is important to set expectations at the
start of a mentoring relationship, in order to ensure it thrives and is seen as a success for both the mentor and
mentee. As a mentor, it is vital that your mentee knows about your background and experience but also that they
know what level of support you are willing and able to offer them. Is this a call once a month or is it a meeting in
person every quarter? Ensure, within the introductory meeting, you set expectations and be clear on what you can
realistically help with. At the same time, ensure your mentee understands what you are there to support them
with, as a mentor.
Guiding, Advising, Listening and Asking Questions
Often referred to as ‘contracting’, this is something we reference a lot. It is important to set expectations at the
start of a mentoring relationship, in order to ensure it thrives and is seen as a success for both the mentor and
mentee. As a mentor, it is vital that your mentee knows about your background and experience but also that they
know what level of support you are willing and able to offer them. Is this a call once a month or is it a meeting in
person every quarter? Ensure, within the introductory meeting, you set expectations and be clear on what you can
realistically help with. At the same time, ensure your mentee understands what you are there to support them
with, as a mentor.
Offer Experience-Based Guidance
We learn from our failures and from the mistakes we make, far more than we learn from our successes.
Therefore, the more we encourage mentoring, the more we can grow and reduce the mistakes an d failures we
make. In mentoring, it is important to provide experience-based guidance and help your mentee to not repeat

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mistakes. You are primarily a mentor because you are in a position of experience and therefore if you can pass
this experience, knowledge and insight onto your mentee, you will help them to develop and grow.
The guidance and advice you offer your mentee should be practical and concrete advice. If there are ever
instances where you are unsure of the correct advice or guidance, then do not guess. Instead, be upfront and let
your mentee know that you do not have the answers in these cases. It is okay not to have all the answers.
Meet at Regular Intervals
During a mentoring relationship, it is worth meeting or speaking with your mentee once or twice a month. Some
mentoring relationships work best when having a longer catch-up every quarter. However, most mentoring
relationships and partnerships will see both parties meeting or speaking on a video call once a month. During
these meetings, go through the things that the mentee has achieved and done in the previous month, where the
sticking points and challenges have been and how goals are being met.
These meetings can be anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple of hours long. However, we would always advise
at least 45 minutes for a call. Shorter meetings can be helpful if you’re meeting more frequently but if you only
have one meeting a month, it is important to give it significant time for you and your mentee to reflect and discuss
goals.
Set time aside to really focus on these meetings and during the meeting also work out what the mentee would like
to achieve in the month ahead, before the next meeting. Having clear, actionable objectives and goals is
sometimes, but not always, the best way to do this.
Your mentee should be responsible for scheduling meetings, in the first instance and should also take
responsibility for creating a meeting agenda. Ask your mentee to send this through to you at least a week before
your meeting, as this will give you the opportunity to reflect on it and plan how you can best help during your
mentoring meeting.
Ending the Mentoring Relationship
Knowing when to wind-down and end a mentoring relationship can often be tricky. Regularly what happens is that
one or both parties simply stop meeting and arranging catch-up sessions. This is fine but is far from ideal. Instead,
if you feel that your mentee is not engaged, or that you are beginning to feel unable to further support, it is best to
have an upfront conversation and decide to end the mentoring relationship. If you had a successful introductory
mentoring meeting, then you should have already discussed the length of time you are looking to mentor anyway,
so do use this as a guide. Equally, PushFar’s platform is designed to help you to stay on track with this. At the
end, discuss the things you have covered off during the mentoring relationship and use it as a time to reflect on
where your mentee was at in the beginning, and where they are now.
Providing Feedback
At the end of a mentoring relationship, we would advise taking a few minutes to think about and provide
constructive feedback, both ways. As a mentor, you should provide feedback that your mentee can take with
them, going forwards into their career and future mentoring relationships. Equally, encourage your mentee to think
about how you could improve the way you mentor in future. Welcome feedback from your mentee and when
providing feedback, you may want to consider the following:
o Was your mentee proactive in managing the relationship?
o Did they engage with their goals and targets, effectively?
o Were they punctual and efficient in scheduling regular meetings?
o Did they make the most of the opportunities to be mentored?
o What could they have improved upon?

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Frequently asked questions
How many mentees should I mentor?
There is no limit on how many mentees you should mentor, it really depends on your bandwidth for this program.
How long is the mentorship process?
On average, a mentorship process lasts from 3 to 6 months, but it really depends on how many goals you plan
to achieve with your mentor/s and how you decide the flow of your relationship. We suggest a 90-day mentoring
journey, but it’s up to you how long you make it.
How does Pushfar do the matching?
The app matches you with people who have expertise on your area of interest, while being mindful of time zone
differences.
Who can be a mentor?
Nowadays, there are several different types of mentoring. Traditional mentoring was the act of a senior and
experienced individual in an industry acting as a support and adviser to someone less experienced. Indeed, the Oxford
English Dictionary’s definition of mentoring is just this - “An experienced person in a company or educational institution
who trains and counsels new employees or students.” And while this is largely still the case, there are other mentoring
techniques and types popping up, such as reverse mentoring. Reverse mentoring is, as it suggests, where new, junior
and less-experienced individuals’ mentor those who have been in the industry or a specific company for considerably
longer. The idea behind this is that those with a fresh, new perspective can help to push change. Almost everyone is
ultimately capable of being a mentor. Anyone who believes they have experience or insight and can offer valuable
support and advice to another individual can be a mentor.
What are the benefits of mentoring?
A mentor can help with a huge number of aspects of an individual's career, their challenges and their achievements too.
A mentor could help you with interview training, updating your resume or CV, providing insight into a certain industry,
assisting you with staying connected to industry trends and standards, office or individual conflict, management
challenges and a whole host of additional aspects of the working world. Some people question why a mentor is a better
option than a friend. We firmly believe that it is important to keep the right work/life balance. With mentoring,
professionals can help to provide an outside, unbiased, fair and experienced opinion, advice and support, where friends
and family might not be able to. Being able to speak to someone more experienced who can guide one through their
career is so important. Equally, for a mentor, it can be hugely rewarding training and aiding a mentee. Passing on one's
experience, knowledge and insight is a great way of giving back and can even help personal growth too.
How long should a mentoring relationship last for?
There is no fixed time period for mentoring. Some mentoring programs and schemes like to implement a fixed-term for
them, such as 6 months or a year. However, most mentoring relationships last for anywhere from a few months to a few
years, based on an individual’s needs, challenges they’re facing and how they wish to manage their mentorship. We
would recommend aiming, initially, for a 3-month mentoring relationship, as a general guide. However, if you are looking
for a mentor to assist you with a specific challenge or aspect to your career development, it is likely that within this there
will be a clear time-frame, defined by results (such as overcoming the challenge in question).
Why should someone become a mentor?
Typically, the benefits are seen to be far clearer for the mentee, however, the benefits for a mentor are significant too.
Being a mentor is a fantastic way to learn, develop and grow in one’s own career. By mentoring someone else, a
mentor will typically learn a lot by offering their support to a mentee. Learning about different roles within an
organisation, specific challenges an individual may be facing and improving their own interpersonal skills at the same
time. Often, mentoring is seen as a great first-step on the management ladder too. Being able to mentor someone can
help an individual to learn skills they will similarly require as a manager.
How often should I meet with my mentor or mentee?

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We would recommend a mentoring meeting every other week, so twice a month, as a general guide. This, however, is
ultimately best decided and agreed upon with both a mentor and a mentee, during the introductory meeting, where
expectations are set. Some mentoring relationships that go on for longer work best with fewer meetings, whereas
mentoring relationships focused on shorter-term goals or challenges might benefit from meeting more frequently.