You don’t have to set-up, write, and sign an informal agreement and action plan, but experience suggests that creating these together at the start of a new mentoring relationship can create clarity on goals and expectations. This way, you avoid any confusion and create focus.

In our training sessions for Mentors and Mentees we will help you think through how to shape your own mentoring agreement (link to template for agreement). You may wish to consider the following:

• Schedule and way(s) you will communicate
• Structure of the sessions
• Duration of the sessions
• Who is responsible for setting-up the meetings and sending calendar invites (in our scheme we encourage Mentees to do this)
• Ground rules for discussions
• Goals and expectations for mentor
• Goals and expectations for mentee
• Issues not to be discussed
• Any additional areas

1. Get to know each other

2. Set mentoring goals and expectations

4. Conduct the mentoring sessions

5. Evaluate your relationship

All IDS Alumni Network Mentoring & Advice Programme Mentors are automatically members of the Mentors Group where you can find links to all of our useful resources, articles and details of upcoming skills workshops.

All who are interested in accessing the IDS Alumni Network Mentoring & Advice Programme can find find links to all our useful information on the Mentoring & Advice page.