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What Makes A Mentor?

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What is a mentor? “A mentor is usually an effective teacher who becomes a coach as they establish goals with mentees and strategies to achieve goals.” (Gillies) , making a mentee the person who is being advised, trained, or counseled by the mentor. In many cases--specifically in the field of education-- mentors are assigned mentees that are usually inexperienced, troublesome, or simply trying to attain some sort of guidance with their careers. Although, another way this sort of relationship is established is on a personal or natural level; where the mentee views someone with appealing or attainable characteristics that pertains to a self-made goal or stance in life, that they feel are necessary to achieve their goal. “Carl Jung (1958) …show more content…

Furthermore, practical support is considered finding a goal, acquiring knowledge about that goal, and planning tasks or creating strategies to accomplish a goal (Gillies). One of the most potent practices of mentoring is flexibility in attitude, “The ability to adjust to a meet a variety of situations is paramount”(Boreen et al) in a successful mentor, in order to have a successful mentorship. This allows a sense of mutual respect and understanding between the mentor and the mentee when trying to figure out what it is that person is trying to achieve and why they want to achieve it. A mentor 's ability to flex their attitude is imperative especially when dealing with--my generation-- generation Y, also known as Millennials, also known as the microwave generation (because we want everything in life to work on microwave timing). Considering all these new “get rich quick” careers, mentors may never know what to expect or how to respond because the gap that social media, music, and technology have created. Regardless, the tendency to emit a “my way or the highway” is not effective when trying to achieve a healthy state of mentorship, because it causes mentees to rebel and restrict mentors from building trust and gaining understanding. Instead of a mentor setting goals for the mentee and pushing them towards them, a mentor should want to understand, interpret, and

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