Mentoring Future Leaders

Mentoring Future Leaders
Making Suggestions and Giving Advice
What are the pros and cons of making suggestions and giving
advice?
Advice and Suggestions
Many first time mentors are tempted to
give advice and make suggestions
instead of facilitating the mentee’s own
discovery of new insights
Persuasion and advice of the kind “this is
what I think you ought to do” lacks the
emotional buy-in that leads to ownership
and commitment.
Suggestions and opinions might be proposed in the case of minor
decisions where there is little risk involved. However, the final decision
always remains with the mentee. In the case of life changing decisions,
the mentor cannot afford to give advice, as he/she might be held
responsible for the consequences of following the advice.
In an emergency situation the mentor might be pressed for advice and
could consider making some suggestions to facilitate the mentee’s rate of
decision-making. Shifting the responsibility for decision-making to the
mentor might create dependency and diminish the problem-solving skills
and confidence of the mentee. Well-meant advice might eventually cause
resistance, which could jeopardise relationships.
Suggestions and ideas arise in the mentor’s mind as a function of his or
her experience, intelligence, intuition or imagination. They are
occasionally valid and occasionally acceptable to the mentee. The
mentee should have a genuine choice as to whether or not to accept them.
As in the case of feedback:
© Learning Link International
April 2005
Module 4 - Mentoring Skills Page ! 1