According to Baylor University, a mentoring relationship can help an individual define, organize and realize personal short-term and long-term goals. A mentor should assist a mentee in choosing specific goals. Over time, he should offer guidance and support through regular meetings and progress reports. Mentors should be well-versed in the skill of goal-setting for both short-term and long-term projects, and they should be able to coach someone about how to set realistic goals over a workable time period.
Purpose
Goal setting is critical to long-term career development, life planning and personal organization. A mentor who provides a mentee with solid goal-setting skills will often teach the mentee about these skills through the experience of setting and realizing goals. For example, a mentee who plans to attend medical school may need to set short-term and long-term goals regarding her plan. First, she must complete prerequisite courses successfully and then she must take the entrance exams. As the mentor helps her track her progress, she will develop a realistic sense of her achievements and her shortcomings. Without this reflection, an individual may underestimate or overestimate her abilities to reach a specific personal goal.
Choosing a Goal
According to Stanford University, mentors should assist mentees in choosing a goal by discussing the individual's specific talents, interests, and family or financial considerations. A mentor can help a mentee prioritize these items and organize steps in which she can realize each specific short-term goal that will ultimately result in her long-term ambitions for career, family and finance.
Considerations
Baylor University suggests that the mentor use a formula for goal-setting, which it calls SMART -- specific, measurable, action-orientated, realistic and timely. This means that the mentee should outline specific plans she will accomplish. For example, she will complete her undergraduate degree with a specific grade point average. This is measurable, because it relates to a numerical goal. It's also action-oriented because the mentee can create a list of tasks she must complete to reach the goal. The mentor should assure that the goal is both realistic and timely, meaning that the mentee is aspiring to achieve a goal that is reachable based on past successes, and it will be realized within a year at most.
Monitoring Progress
Setting a time line and monitoring progress is essential to realizing any important goal. Baylor University suggests that mentors work closely with their mentees to create a weekly and monthly schedule with specific action items. The mentor should schedule meetings for progress checks and help the mentee revise the schedule as needed. The mentor's role in this process is to guide the mentee toward successful time management. If a project or goal seems to be off-schedule, the mentor may need to schedule additional meetings to monitor the work more closely.
Expert Insight
Baylor University recommends that mentors also work with mentees to build decision-making skills. This process help individuals define a problem and identify possible solutions prior to acting in a specific manner. These are critical analytical skills that individuals will often use in educational and employment settings, and as such they are key to the mentoring relationship.
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