From Techstars' Mentor Manifesto & other sources

mentor-playbook.md

• Ask tons of questions. Be Socratic.
• Be authentic. Mentoring is a human interaction.
• Be challenging but never destructive.
• Be direct. Tell the truth, however hard.
• Be optimistic.
• Be responsive.
• Clearly commit to mentoring, or do not be a mentor.
• Clearly separate opinion from fact.
• Clearly state what is an interruption for you and what isn’t.
• Communicate with other mentors.
• Determine what motivates the apprentice. Ask “Why are you doing what you’re doing?”
• Don’t write their code for them. Provide examples and references to documentation.
• Expect nothing in return (you’ll be delighted with what you do get back).
• Focus. Avoid adding new goals. Help the apprentice achieve or re-order existing goals.
• Force the apprentice to drive the relationship. They set goals, you help them reach them.
• Guide, don’t control. Apprentices must make their own decisions. It’s their personal development, not yours.
• Have empathy. Remember that learning is hard.
• Know what you don’t know. Say “I don’t know” when you don’t know.
• Learn something. Mentoring is not one-way. The more you’re in a learning mindset, you’ll connect easier with each other and you’ll avoid complacency.
• Listen. Ask questions. Listen again.
• Practice what you preach.
• Provide specific actionable advice.
• Read the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition. Agree with your apprentice what stage they’re in for each skill they’re trying to acquire (Ruby, Javascript, SQL, interaction design, etc.). Help them move to the next stage.
• Reflect on the quality of the apprentice’s work in his or her presence.
• Reflect on the quality of your work in your apprentice’s presence.
• Reframe if your experience tells you it will help the apprentice.
• Treat every situation as new. Consider the current context.
• Use your network to find your apprentice interesting work after the program.