Mentoring Habits

Many Christians may be considering mentoring others, whether it be some expertise. But Christians may not know what some of the habits of mentorship include. Where do you start? Where do you begin in mentoring? 

First, you want to identify why you want to improve your mentoring skills. You want to identify the reason why you want to mentor? You want to identify what are some of the goals that you want to achieve in mentoring others. Maybe if you are a woman, you want to mentor other women or youths.  Get a clear idea, vision, plan, or goals that you can implement in mentoring others. You may want to learn to develop leadership skills or maybe mentoring is a gift that God has given you that you would like to Steward for the kingdom of God. You may have a passion and desire to help other Christian women or the younger generation to grow closer to Jesus Christ and develop their own personal relationship with Him. 

Second, there may be certain triggers of situations or behaviors that may cause you to not want to mentor. Some examples of this may include burn out from past mentoring, unrealistic expectations, or a lack of passion and motivation. Coaches or mentors may feel a lack of support when it comes to coaching or they may have feelings of inadequacy. Coaches or mentors may feel as though they are not cut out for the job, so that they may have a lack of passion or pursuit of the job. 

Thirdly, when mentoring you wants to build trust by establishing strong relationships with your clients. You want to allow the client to express their needs or concerns and have an open and listening ear to their needs. You also may want to be open on how you can help, teach, or counsel to the client spiritually.

Next, mentors may want to develop specific steps they can take to achieve their goals. Mentors may want to promote growth and development by expanding their skills. Mentors may want to take classes to become a mentor and to promote mentorship throguh a business or a ministry objective.. In addition, mentors may want to be flexible to meet the needs of the clients and learn the preferences of each individual client. The mentors may want to learn the strengths and weaknesses of not only themselves and how they should mentor, but also the clients as well.  

You can also provide both positive and negative feedback when mentoring an individual. This can help the client or individual to learn and grow and develop new habits. In addition, you can offer experiences from your own journey to help the individual client to learn from experiences. You can also connect the person you are mentoring with valuable contacts or networks. The person may need a particular person, service, or product, you may be able to direct them to that person or thing that can be helpful or valuable to their needs. 

Furthermore, you want to empower and encourage your individual client to pursue their goals in fulfilling their passion and purpose and pursuing a relationship through Christ. You can also celebrate the individual client's successes and wins. Any losses the client is going through, you can help them to get victory in their situation and help them to overcome new challenges. Also, you want to be patient with the progress of the individual client. It may take time for a person to learn new skills and habits and to set new goals. 

Lastly, you want to have empathy and understanding for the individual client's needs and concerns. You may want to pray over them while you are mentoring them. You also may want to invest time and effort in the mentors development if you want an ongoing mentorship. You also want to dedicate time and effort to the mentorship relationship if God is leading you to continue to pursue mentoring this person. 

For the mentor, you want to reflect and evaluate how you can learn and grow in your mentoring or mentorship. Think about some new skills or knowledge you can develop so you can become a better mentor. 

Here are some scriptures that may relate to mentorship. 

Proverbs 11:14 says, "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety."