Six Habits of Highly Effective Mentees (and My Start-Up Life Excerpts)

Personally and professionally I always thrive to learn. Nine months ago I moved from programming into systems/business analysis: I knew what the job entailed and knew I could do it well. I still asked for a mentor.

Specifically, I asked that my mentor be the person in our organisation who is always lauded as being the most knowledgeable. Being a mentee is not easy.

Six Habits of Highly Effective Mentees is an article written by Ben Casnocha (author of My Start-Up Life) and has renewed my life as a mentee after flagging lately. The habits are:

1. It’s all about the questions you ask
2. Have strong beliefs, weakly held
3. Have a long term perspective
4. Be open to topics not on your short-term agenda
5. Follow up by showing interest in them (at least four times a year)
6. Don’t make the mentor do the work

The Power of Mentors is an excerpt from Ben’s book. I recommend reading it and the others that are available on the book’s site.