How to be a great mentee

How to ensure mentors feel valued and stay invested in your growth.

Before You Start

Goal: Explore what mentees should do to build and maintain the kinds of mentoring relationships that unlock real growth.

Article: The Power of Mentorship

Meeting Agenda · Approx. 60 mins

  • Member Updates · 10 mins
  • Icebreaker · 10 mins
  • Key Takeaways · 5 mins
  • Discussion Questions · 20 mins
  • Write It Down · 2 mins
  • One Action · 10 mins
  • Wrap-Up · 5 mins

👋 Member Updates · 10 mins

Go around your Circle and share personal updates. Keep them brief and focused on significant changes or important decisions since the last time you met. It's OK not to have one every month. If you have a One Action update from last time, share that too.

🧊 Icebreaker · 10 mins

Invite everyone in the group to share. Keep answers to one or two minutes per person.

What's one thing you wish you'd known earlier about how to be a great mentee?

💡 Key Takeaways · 5 mins

  • Great mentees put in the legwork. Come to mentorship conversations prepared, learn about your mentor's work, and follow up after any interaction. That signals to a mentor that the investment is worthwhile.
  • Mentorship requires genuine curiosity. Bring thoughtful, open questions, curiosity, and authentic interest your mentor's thinking. -Closing the loop shows you value their advice: Send follow-up emails with thanks and updates on how the mentor's guidance has made a difference.

💬 Discussion Questions · 20 mins

Move through the questions at the pace that suits your Circle. You don't need to cover every one. Pick the prompts that resonate most.

  1. What do you think makes you show up as a great mentee? What has gotten in the way of that for you in the past?
  2. How could you do more to ensure that your mentor feels genuinely invested in you and valued?
  3. Think about a mentoring relationship you have, or want to have. What would make you a better mentee in it?
  4. Take a minute to reflect: What's a question you've never asked a mentor, but probably should?

✍️ Write It Down · 2 mins

Take a few quiet minutes to connect the discussion to your own life. Make a quick list of actions or questions to revisit later — they can become your One Action.

Note down any next steps you want to take, based on today's discussion. One of these can become your One Action.

🎯 One Action · 10 mins

Commit to one concrete action — big or small — you'll take before next meeting. Go around the Circle and share (1 minute or less per member). Vocalizing it helps hold each other accountable.

What's one way you could show up better as a mentee this month?

📅 Wrap-Up · 5 mins

Before you break, lock in the basics for the next meeting — and close on an energetic note. Go around your Circle one by one and finish the sentence:

Now I am feeling… (choose one word).

  • Set the day, time, and location
  • Choose the next topic or resource
  • Confirm who's leading the discussion
  • Decide how you'll stay in touch in between