AIESEC in Austria - Meeting guidance

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Meeting guidance

The first one-to-one meeting

Get out of the office: go for coffee, breakfast, lunch or dinner

1) Preparation:

Prepare some questions and dedicate time to share stories and get to know the other person

2) Initial actions:

Focus on getting to know each other, creating the common expectations and building trust
Define frequency and intervals of meetings. When and where to meet. Both sides need to agree.
Talk a little in general terms about what you feel you have to offer as a mentor/what you look for as a mentee - listen as to the role that the other person is laying out for you: recognize commonalities and address differences in terms of coming to common expectations

Set out ‘ground-rules’:

Be explicit about the best time and ways for the other person to reach you and about your own needs and limits (e.g., time constraints, style of interacting, etc.)
Clarify any miss-matched expectations about the roles
Go through expectation setting
Go through the objectives of the mentorship program. List at least 3 outcomes you and your mentor would like to get out of the relationship
Start talking about goal setting and where you see your mentor’s place in helping you achieve your goals

3) Once you have set out some of the boundaries of the relationship, consider exploring:

4) Then you can start jointly working on a formal or informal mentoring plan.

Subsequent meetings: Suggestions for activities or discussion points

Work on how to handle interpersonal conflicts, work with different personality types, and resolve internal differences.
Share materials (e.g., reports, books, articles, models) that have impressed you. Ask the other person to read them and discuss with you later.
Use an article as the basis for a meeting discussion: how does it relate to both of your business units?
Discuss mentee’s SMART objectives in relation to a mentoring goal.
Walk through various scenarios the mentee faces (or could face). Discuss ‘what if’ situations; role-play different strategies; change details to call for different solutions.
Work on how to handle political issues or recognize political implications of a planned action.
Create a network map: Who does the mentee know and what areas are missing? Who can the mentor link the mentee to?

The usual agenda of the meeting should be developed by the mentee. Mentee is the one who knows the area that need to be discussed.

Meeting principles

Frequent communication at the beginning of relationship will establish the foundation of trust.
Respect the others’ time. Follow through on scheduled meetings whenever possible.
Identify the best environment for open communication. Find times and places where you will not be interrupted.
Always set up the next time to be in touch and review follow-up points.
Maintain confidentiality and encourage the mentee to address issues on their own.

Reviewing and Evaluating the Mentoring relationship

After you have been in touch for some time, it is good to do a check to see how the relationship is moving forward.

Each of you should think about and then share thoughts about these statements:

“I feel the trust is so strong between us that we can work well together.”
“If something goes wrong in our relationship, I feel I can bring it up.”
“I feel that the defined actions we have set for the relationship are positive and we are making headway.”