Thinking Space Paper No.17: What makes a great mentor?
Can anyone be a mentor? Are there things that make great mentors unique? As in all things I think it’s helpful to go back to the beginning. The first mention of a mentor was in Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’, where Odysseus heads off to fight in the Trojan Wars and leaves his young son in the care of his wise and trusted advisor – Mentor. As mentors we offer mentees many things, but at its core mentoring is about providing support by listening and offering challenge by asking good questions.