It may go without saying, but when mentoring, it’s so important to put yourself back in the shoes of the intern and remember that you were there once.
One of the best ways to mentor is to use empathy to connect with your intern. It will help to establish common ground, make them feel more comfortable and lessen the perceived gap between you and them. Remember when you were a child and felt that adults seemed so much bigger and scarier and knew so much more than you? Taking the first few baby steps in your career can often feel the same and it can be so comforting for the intern to know that you once felt like this, too.
Furthermore, the use of empathy will create a safe space for the intern to be able to confide in you about their worries, concerns or talk about certain scenarios or situations. A first placement or internship can be particularly nerve-wracking – you’re eager to please, you may overthink certain interactions (remember when you got your first coffee order wrong?) and you can really help to put your intern at ease by showing lots of empathy when they talk to you about these things.
Especially when you’re first starting out somewhere, it’s important to feel as though your worries or concerns are valid – being told that you’re overthinking or overreacting or approaching things wrong can be very distressing and could affect performance, so it is important to be as compassionate as possible.
On the other hand, it’s important to remember that the intern’s position may be completely different to yours. Amongst starting out in their career, they may be navigating issues such as rental crises (luckily, that’s where we’re here to help!), the aftermath of the lack of jobs from the pandemic (online graduate jobs fell by 60% and research has shown that as a result, young people’s pay could be lower for three years post-pandemic) and may be struggling with issues such as comparing themselves to their peers online. Listening and understanding these concerns could also help to broaden your own perspective!
Your intern’s shoes may look exactly the same or be an entirely different colour or pattern to yours, but as a mentor, it’s your job to help them feel supported and to build up their confidence by reminding them that you were once there, too.
Image Credit: Jason Goodman, Website Link: https://unsplash.com/photos/two-women-standing-in-front-of-white-dry-erase-board-IQY_q-RqaIo
