As a GET INFORMED mentor, your role is to help trustees and non-executive directors build their knowledge of social investment. It’s helpful to set expectations at the start of your relationship with your mentee.

Sometimes referred to as ‘contracting’ this is about establishing:

Limits (for example: to the role you play and time you have)

What might that look like in practice?

• As a GET INFORMED mentor I am here to help you build your knowledge of social investment, not to offer professional advice. I can share my personal experience and knowledge of social investment but I can’t advise you on what your organisation should do or give an opinion on a particular course of action. Does that make sense, any questions?

Process (the broad aims of the mentoring, agreeing dates and times)

What might that look like in practice?

• Establishing your mentee’s broad aims for wanting a Get Informed mentor – what are they looking for? Where do they want to get to? This doesn’t have to be very specific at this stage but is about setting a direction and reinforcing the point of the conversation.
• Discussing whether there are some times/days in the week that are more convenient for both of you – agreeing how frequently it would be useful to meet/talk and establishing a next date in the diary.

Practicalities (for example: where the sessions might take place, face-to-face, online or by phone)

What might that look like in practice?

• Discussing how and where the sessions will take place – establishing what is possible for both of you and the preferred means of communication.

Listening carefully, clarifying and drawing out themes will help your mentee think about their options and come to useful next steps.

Here are a few techniques:

Reflecting:paraphrasing and restating feelings and words of the speaker. This could be simply repeating a couple of important words to encourage someone to carry on talking or it could be reflecting a feeling.

For example:

• Speaker: it’s complex, lots of different options and it’s not clear how to move forward
• Listener: you sound quite confused

Clarifying: a way of reassuring the speaker you’re listening and understanding complex situations.

For example:

• When you said… what did you mean?
• Could I just check… 

Summarising: taking the main points of the received message and reiterating them in a logical and clear way, giving the speaker chance to correct if necessary.