How to Mentor an Intern?

If you look back to your early days of the career, you might realize that many of the qualities and skill which actually helped in the real world does not come from the lectures of college. It actually comes because of the great supervision you get while you are an intern. 

There are bad and good experiences both involved in the process of the internship. However, a mentor can change the starting days of the professional career. As a mentor, you need to believe in the potential of your intern and help them to gather an amazing work experience. It will be the first step in their way of success. 

Mentors are capable of providing the hands-on experience to the interns. When you have your interns to manage, you will need to develop your leadership quality and their skills at the same time.

A good relationship between mentor and intern is the foundation of a great learning process. You need to share your expertise and professional knowledge with your intern in order to grow their potentials. A good mentor should be available to answer all the questions of an intern. It obviously involves the willingness to learn by your intern as well. However, your skills should be enough to develop that interest to learn. 

You need to focus on their success ladder and make them responsible and career oriented. The interns are fresh and start from scratch. They are easy to mold and vulnerable with high grasping power and eagerness to learn. The role of the mentor is extremely important to transform an intern into a professional expert. A good mentor should possess some quality which can help them throughout the journey of mentoring. The proper guidance is immensely important in order to shape a good career of an intern. Let us now discuss, what are those quality that can be considered for a mentor:

#1. Positive Attitude And A Role Model

A good mentor should possess a positive attitude in order to establish a positive environment at the workplace. He/She exhibits some personal attributes to achieve a professionally successful goal in the field. A positive attitude will lead you to become a successful role model. To make the intern more productive, you will have to follow an encouraging persona, to motivate to work positively. It will also train the intern to follow the same steps in order to become more successful. They will come to know what it takes to become professional, productive and successful. You being the mentor is on the position of demonstrator of positive behavior. They will automatically follow the footsteps and actions that are required to become a professional in their field.

#2. Willingness To Share Your Knowledge

If a mentor has no willingness to share their first-hand experience and skills with the interns, there is no use of them gaining so much experience for all these years. A good mentor should be willing to teach whatever they have learned in their whole professional career. Of course, sharing the personal development will encourage the trainee to follow the same actions in order to achieve whatever they desire. Good mentors always remember from where they have started, and they try to provide as much comfort as possible to the intern so that their initial experience in the profession can be easier. A mentor should not be taking the relationship between them and intern lightly and understand all the requirement that they need to know. There is always a commitment needed in order to share a healthy professional relationship. They continually share their ongoing support with their interns.

Mentors hold the position to demonstrate and explain how the field of work is changing and growing. There are thousands of things which are still new to them as well, and they still learn. If someone is feeling stagnant in their present position, they will not become an outstanding mentor. A person should be open to new learning experiences and should possess an adapting nature. The time and energy the interns put in to learn new profession and skills take a lot of their efforts. They should be rewarded for those efforts or at least acknowledged if they are putting in their 100%. It will not only tell them that they are improving but will also reinforce them to do better in future. 

Good mentors are committed to work and open to experiments. This is a very crucial step in the process of learning. They usually continue to still read about their profession to have a better knowledge of the ongoing trends. They are always excited to teach new things and learn new things from the new interns for that matter. They enjoy the process of teaching and learning. Their membership in the professional associations made the life of an intern easier and filled with hundreds of experience.

#4. Personal Mentoring Relationship

Good mentors are responsible in their relationship and feel invested in the future success of their intern. Usually, a mentor requires to be compassionate, knowledgeable and should possess the attributes of a good trainer or teacher. The skill of being excellent communication skills are also required. A good mentor is ready to teach the intern professionally and personally. The mentors are committed to guide and help their interns to find the way to success. They are gratified in choosing their profession. Overall good mentoring skills requires a strong blend of professional and personal relationship. 

Mentoring requires a great level of empowering the intern so that they can improve their beliefs, strengths and personal attributes. A blend of professional and personal relationship will ensure even more growth. Sometimes, an intern can feel alone to grasp the professional skill. Therefore being a good guiding hand, a mentor needs to console them personally as well.

#5. Showcase Enthusiasm

A mentor who can not exhibit enthusiasm in the work field can never become a good mentor. Investing time in motivating the interns is an essential part of the job as being new in the field interns can feel a little left out. A good mentor needs to boost their confidence to perform better. Showcasing the attitude of enthusiasm will also ensure the motivation of the intern to learn new and meaningful skills. Enthusiasm catches the motivation of the intern and inspires them to explore their potential to create a good professional life. The new employee will understand the meaning of the workplace and will work accordingly. If a mentor is focusing on creating a motivating and positive environment than the trainee or the new employee will have a great kickstart to their professional life.

#6. Provides Constructive Feedback And Guidance

One of the most important and key responsibilities of a good mentor provides a relevant and constructive feedback to their interns. The feedback will ensure that the trainees are aware that what are the areas of their current strength and where they need to focus in the future. In order to identify the areas your intern likely to grow it is immensely important to provide the feedback. Also, apart from feedback, the guidance of the mentor is also immensely important to be certain of the future growth. As we discussed above, a mentor possess great communication skills to make the intern understand where they are lacking without even demoralizing them. It is important for an intern to know their potential and areas to accomplish in the future. A mentor should be capable of giving challenges to the intern to foster their professional development and achieve the desired skills.

#7. Values The Opinions And Initiatives

A mentor is not just the person to guide and give feedback. He needs to acknowledge the opinions and initiatives done by the interns in order to motivate them. The one who accepts and values others initiatives is probably eager to grow as well. The mentor should be willing to grow in the process of learning. A professional environment which supports each other's work ethics and ideas are likely to grow with time. The ultimate success of a good mentor is empowering their interns through the positive feedback. A mentor should value their fresh and new ideas and reinforce them to grow this skill. To achieve overall personal success and professional goals the acknowledgment of the work of the intern is crucial.

Communication and motivation are the keys to mold the raw talent into a successful professional. Being a mentor, make sure you are always available and approachable to your intern. Do not keep the walls high as they won’t be able to share their thoughts with you in such surroundings. Give your intern a chance to grow and open the gates of exploring their skills without any restriction. Make sure you go through a low-stress interaction with your intern, if not daily then at least weekly. This will make their initial settlement in the professional field feasible and comfortable. If you also have interesting ideas to share on being a good mentor, share with us in the comment section below.

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