How To Be a Mentor
Paying it forward in politics
Overview
Thank you for signing up for Arena Connections as a mentor! There are so many folks in our community who are looking for someone to help them navigate their careers in a complicated campaign ecosystem. You can and will be an important force in making sure that talented individuals stay in this work and take the right next steps with their careers.
Responsibilities
Our mentorship framework is simple. We want to give you and your mentee space to figure out what works best for you both, so that everyone gets what they need from this relationship. However, along with the code of conduct, there are three basic things we’d like you to do:
- Please commit to hosting at least three mentorship sessions with your mentee. These can be via zoom, phone call, in person, or any other preferred form of communication. These conversations can be anywhere from 30-60 minutes or more!
- When your mentee or prospective mentee reaches out, please respond. (Even if the answer is you don’t have the bandwidth to talk right now!) The worst communication is no communication.
- Show up with your whole self and be present for your mentee. Remember, the person you’re talking with is probably early or in the critical mid-section of their career. What they do next will be a determining factor in their long-term career trajectory. Be present; give good advice.
Your Role
Every mentor and mentee relationship will be different. And we don’t want to prescriptively outline exactly what your relationship must be like. However, generally, you should be able to help with your mentee’s early and mid-career questions, provide your thinking (or your framework of how you would think) on specific professional questions, provide ethical and moral guidance in a professional context, and more. It goes without saying that you are under no obligation to offer your mentee a job, but if your mentee is job searching, it is good to point them in the right direction.
It’s up to you to set boundaries around your time, what topics and kind of advice you want to give. If you find your mentee is going too deep on a topic or asking for in-line edits on a campaign plan, and you don’t have the skills or time to go that deep, let them know. There are likely other topics you two can dive into and still have a successful mentor-mentee experience. (If you do want to give in-line edits, by all means, have at it!)
In short, a great mentor is both a career coach and a soft support system for your mentee.
We also acutely understand that your job may be incredibly busy. If you do not have the bandwidth to take on a mentee, just reach out and tell them. There are a lot of other folks in the Arena network who would be excited to talk with them.
Sample Questions and First Meeting
We want you to structure your mentorship calls in whatever ways are most useful for you and your mentee. Remember, mentorship should be mutually beneficial. While your mentee is getting advice on navigating specific career challenges, you are also receiving insight into how junior staff are operating in the ecosystem – insight that can be useful when considering how to manage your own staff.
With that said, here are some sample questions that you can use as a starting point:
- How can I be most useful to you as a mentor?
- What ground rules would you like to set (including confidentiality)?
- What is your preferred form of communication?
- What do you do now, and what do you want to do long term?
- What do you see as your own greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses?
- When you think about the upcoming cycle professionally, what gives you the most pause?
You should personalize these questions and make them yours. And feel free to touch on any topics that feel useful for you to dive into with your mentee.
Follow Up
After talking, it goes a long way to send a quick follow-up note that outlines that it was nice to talk, and offers some times to speak next. Especially for early-in-career staff, it makes a huge difference to lead by example and set the precedent that follow up is normal, expected, and critical for building professional relationships.
Final Steps
We understand that not every mentor-mentee relationship will stick! But we’re also hopeful that you’ll meet some fantastic early career staff who you want to work with in the future and deepen your understanding of the broader political ecosystem.
If you don’t think the relationship is going anywhere, it is totally ok to send a note after your third session to your mentee that outlines that this is your third and final session. Please do not ghost anyone.
Relatedly, if you receive too many requests for mentorship and no longer want to be part of the program, just reach out to the Arena Careers team at careers@arena.run.