When are you NOT ready for mentoring?

You have read several of our articles and LinkedIn posts on mentoring.

You have thought about it, and you want to give it a try.

Time to take a mentor.

Quite some people are not ready for mentoring yet.

1. Limited self-awareness
   • Too many blind spots about your behavior
   • No insight into your strengths and weaknesses
   • No idea what you could improve about yourself
2. No clear view on what you want to achieve with the mentoring (often related to the first point)
   • Vague goals
   • Unambitious goals
   • “We shall see what happens during the mentoring.”
   • Lack of accountability (“If it doesn’t work, so be it.”)
3. No awareness of growth blocking issues
   • “The others are the problem.”
   • Fear to be honest about your struggles
   • Fear to ask for help
   • Fear of failure
   • “I will never be able to achieve something.”
   • Lack of trust in other people
   • Low mental energy level
4. No growth mindset
   • “I don’t need to learn more’
   • You avoid challenges and obstacles
   • You feel threatened by someone else's success
   • You believe your abilities are fixed
5. No time commitment
   • I am so busy
   • I have other priorities at the moment
   • Let’s postpone until I have more time
6. No support from your N+1 or another internal sponsor
   • Nobody else in my organization knows about the mentoring
   • You don’t want to get feedback from others in your organization
7. No genuine openness for the input and advice of others
   • More talking than listening
   • Defensive reactions to the feedback of others
   • “I know it better.”
   • “My mentor is so different from me.”
   • “I have my view on the world, and nobody can change that.”

If you tick several of these boxes, it’s not the right moment to start with mentoring.