Members of the Crafty Counsel Community recently got together virtually to discuss the topic of mentoring for in-house lawyers. Led by our Head of Community, Toby Hornett, the session explored why mentoring matters and how in-house lawyers can get involved with mentoring opportunities through the Community. Members also discussed their own experiences to share tips, and best practice for making the most of mentoring.
With so much wisdom shared during the session, we’ve put together this article exploring why mentoring matters for in-house lawyers and how to make the most of a mentoring relationship.
Why in-house lawyers need to get involved with mentoring
One day, everything is going swimmingly in your career and job. You might not feel like you need a mentor because everything is on track, you’re hitting your objectives, and excelling in your career.
But a career crisis can strike anyone at any time. At this point, it’s too late to start developing a mentoring relationship. It’s much better to establish that relationship during calmer times, so you have that trust already built for the times of crisis.
Everyone will have to face tricky situations at some point. Having a trusted mentor you can turn to for advice and support can make these situations significantly easier to handle. Mentors can provide a listening ear, offer fresh perspective, and help you work through complex issues.
Even when things are going smoothly, a mentor can still provide great support for your career. They can serve as a regular checkpoint to discuss challenges, clarify thinking, and break out of a rut.
Quick overview of how mentoring works
Mentoring can seem a little bit daunting before you get into it. How do you find a mentor that you connect with? How often should you meet with your mentor? What can you tell your mentor?
How does Crafty Counsel facilitate mentoring?
At Crafty Counsel, we facilitate mentoring on the Community Hub (our new App for in-house lawyers).
When a member creates their profile on the Community Hub, they’re able to opt into either being a mentor or mentee (or both!). They are then assigned a tag which denotes their choice. Members of the Community who are looking for a mentor are able to filter the Community Directory to find a list of mentors.
The Community Directory will also share other details about the mentors, including the career experience, so that mentees can find someone relevant to them. Mentees can then send their potential mentor a direct message to connect.
What’s a “click meeting”?
So you’ve found a potential mentor, or someone has approached you as a mentee. The next step is to make sure that you are the right match which is where a “click meeting” or “chemistry meeting” comes in.
A click meeting is a crucial step in the mentoring process as it determines whether a mentee-mentor partnership will be mutually beneficial before embarking.
During this first conversation, you should be considering:
- Comfort levels
- Compatibility
- Interest in continuing the relationship
After that first initial meeting, you might decide that you want to continue the mentoring journey. But, remember, it’s perfectly acceptable for either side to say: “I don’t think this is the right fit. I’d like to try someone else.” In fact, this is a good thing. It prevents wasting time with the wrong mentor for you, so you can move on to finding a better fit.
The logistics of mentoring
Once you’ve found the right mentor or mentee, you should consider some of the logistics of this relationship including:
- Who drives the relationship?
- Who sets the agenda?
- What needs to be confidential?
In a mentee-mentor relationship, the mentee is the one looking for guidance, support, and advice. Therefore, the responsibility lies with the mentee for setting the agenda. They must prepare for the meetings, and bring their objectives and questions to the table.
When it comes to communication, the mentee is responsible for driving the contact. They should be setting up the next meetings. However, both parties should agree from the outset how they like to communicate and frequency. How often will you meet? Will you be communicating only via email, video calls, in-person meetings, or will it be a combination? You can also agree on a lower commitment and to take it slow in the beginning – it doesn’t need to be a whole series of meetings, it could be one by one.
Confidentiality and supervision for the mentor
Mentoring sessions are confidential, and mentees should reiterate this at the beginning of each session. There might be situations that arise where an exception is made, and the mentor will flag that.
For instance, if the mentor believes the mentee or someone else is at risk, or if the mentee is talking about a serious breach of a policy or the law. If situations like this happen, the mentor is responsible for immediately communicating that confidentiality will not apply.
There might also be situations in which the mentor feels that a different type of support might be needed, for example counselling or therapy.
The topic of confidentiality links to superversion as a mentor. Regular supervision sessions are essential for mentors to discuss their challenges and experiences with other mentors. The mentor will not disclose the names of the mentees during these.
At Crafty Counsel, we will be hosting supervision sessions for any mentors that have found a mentee through the Community Hub.
How can you be a good mentor?
If you are looking to become a mentor, it can be daunting to know if you’re doing it well. So we asked members of our in-house legal Community what they believe makes a good mentor. Some of the attributes they believe a mentor should embody are:
- Being objective and listening well
- Insightful, supportive, and offers guidance
- Encourages and builds the mentee’s confidence
- Has relevant experience – this doesn’t necessarily mean the same field, it can be life experience
- Provide perspectives and options to the challenges mentees want to overcome
- Actually want to be a good mentor – making time, setting expectations around availability and capacity
“Some people just do it for their own performance review purposes. The lack of a genuine desire to mentor doesn’t make for a great mentoring relationship and is likely to fade.”
How can you be a good mentee?
Similarly, mentoring is a relationship so the emphasis shouldn’t be on the mentor alone. As a mentee, how can you make sure you’re behaving in a way that gets the most out of the relationship?
We also asked the in-house lawyers in our Community members what it takes to be a good mentee. They shared the following traits:
- Be open to ideas, suggestions, feedback, and challenge
- Willingness to learn and a growth mindset
- Proactive and prepares for the session with questions, issues, and topics they want to work through
- Reverse mentoring
- Respectful of mentor’s time constraints and capacity
Final tips for to create a mentoring experience from the community
If you have found the right mentor or mentee, and you’re ready to start the mentoring process, we have some final tips from the in-house legal community on making that experience the best. Make sure you consider the following before and during your first mentoring meeting:
- What is the intended outcome of the mentoring? Mentees should come to the mentor with some goals they want to achieve so you can know if it has been successful.
- Make sure it is time bound. The best mentoring experiences are time bound to help keep the conversations relevant and useful for the mentee.
- How structured will your mentoring be? Will you focus on a specific topic, or will it be more organic?
Finally, if you have had a great mentor, do give them a mention in the Community Hub!
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