Adult Mentoring: Skills & Activities

Some mentees know exactly what they want to work on. Many don't, or can't find the words, and a mentor who fills the silence with advice ends up solving the wrong problem.

This is about listening properly and helping people tell their own story. You'll look at how tone and body language carry more than words, and how to set your own assumptions aside. Then there are about 20 activities to pick from. Use a blank clock face to talk through a mentee's day, a school map coloured red, amber and green for where they feel safe. Try blob trees, a text from their 80-year-old self, or a made-up character called Sam for talking about hard things at one remove.

None of them is compulsory. Pick the one that fits the person in front of you, and leave the rest.