The Initial Mentor-Protege Contact
by Barry Sweeny, 2003
Ideally, as soon as it is known that a protege will need a mentor, a mentor should be assigned and a protege should be alerted to that mentor's name and contact information, such as phone number, e-mail, etc. This needs to be done right away as proteges will have questions, doubts, concerns, and needs right away from the start of their new assignment. They deserve support from the start as well.
As soon as a mentor is assigned, he/she should be prompted by the program (letter? e-mail? phone call?) to try to contact the protege, introduce him/herself, and make an acquaintance. At that time a protege should have an opportunity to get answers to any questions they may have, so proteges should be prompted to prepare a list in advance of that first contact.
Also, a protege should ask the mentor if he/she has any questions of the protege. The point is to briefly get to know a few things about each other.
Next, the pair should set a time and place where you will meet to begin your work as a mentoring pair.
The mentor should explain if there is anything the protege can do now to be better prepared when it all begins. This helps a protege to BE better prepared when the protege starts work.
Finally, many mentoring programs use a mentoring contract which they expect each mentoring partner to read, sign and follow.
| What should a protege do if no mentor calls? 1. Ask your mentoring program contact person (who sent you information that you were assigned a mentor?) how much time to expect it may take for the mentor to contact you. 2. Wait a reasonable time for a contact. The person may be out of town or unavailable for any number of reasons. 1-2 weeks is reasonable. 3. Check your e-mail, voice mail, and other message possibilities. Even if the mentor is out of town, he/she may try to reach you some way other than a phone call. 4. If still no message or call, ask your mentoring program contact person for contact information for the mentor, and take the initiative by contacting the mentor yourself. |
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