Skip to main content

Understanding your mentorability

Published on: Feb 28, 2023

Mentoring 
Photo credit: Charlie's/Adobe Stock

Having a mentor can be a valuable aspect to your career. But are you ready for it? Can you be mentored?  

Forming and maintaining a mentorship is like any other relationship in that it takes effort from both mentor and mentee. You could have the best mentor in the world, but if you can’t take their advice or ignore them then it doesn’t matter how good they are. In this TED article, Lenora E. Houseworth details the key characteristics, from mentoring researcher Victoria Black, that  allows you to make the most out of your mentorship.  

From the TED article and Victoria Black’s TEDxTexasStateUniversity talk, here are some questions you might want to ask yourself to know if you are ready for a mentorship. 

  1. Are you committed and willing to make the time?  

  1. Do you know what you want from this partnership? 

  1. Are you open to receiving feedback even if you don’t like it? 

  1. Are you willing to be vulnerable and open to change? 

You can use these questions to reflect throughout your mentorship and see where you may need to improve or change in your mentoring relationship.