How To Ask Someone To Be Your Mentor

They can help you come on the right track

Dhanaraj N
Write To Inspire
4 min readDec 20, 2021

--

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Asking someone to mentor you is a big thing and a big privilege to request. This individual is going to be taking away time from their busy day to coach and guide you in the right direction. When you need to hear that yes when you request, there are a few things you have to take into consideration before asking. Mentorship does not come easily but can be very rewarding and beneficial if handled correctly.

The first step in asking someone to mentor you is to prepare a professional letter. This is your opportunity to set the record straight about why you are requesting the mentorship and how you plan on following up on the mentorship. This letter can also include an insert job title that sets the foundation for the relationship between you and the mentor. Your insert job title should identify exactly what it is that you wish to learn from the mentor. In example 2, your insert job title could say, Marketing Manager, Sales Manager or President — whatever suits your needs.

The second step in learning how to ask someone to be your mentor should be to identify your ideal mentor. If you are unsure as to who you would like to become mentored by, use your favorite insert type of person. If this is not applicable, then try using sports people, business people or movies. It may be helpful to identify what makes you tick so you can write a letter that is professional in nature but one that allows room for your mentor’s personality to shine through.

Next, you should identify the steps that will be necessary in order to move forward with learning how to ask someone to be your mentor. For example, you may be interested in becoming an entrepreneur. The next step is to set yourself up with a business plan and make sure that this is clearly defined and includes a detailed sales proposal. You should highlight all of your skills and experience that will help you to succeed as an entrepreneur and how they will benefit you and your future customers. Remember, potential mentors want to see the positive results that you can bring to the table and this is why you need to have a strong business plan.

A final step in learning how to ask someone to be your mentor would be to identify any other aspects of your life that you would like to improve. For example, I have personally benefited from identifying areas of my life where I am inefficient and want to improve. One of the best examples of how to ask someone to be your mentor was to remove something that was holding me back from success and this is the type of person that I am now mentoring.

When learning how to ask someone to be your mentor, it is important that you are clear about what your expectations are for this relationship. If you are looking for a relationship that simply continues on without any changes, then you should probably look elsewhere because you will not get the same results as if you begin a new mentorship relationship based on a clean start. However, if you are willing to put in the work and invest your time into learning how to be a good mentor, you can move forward quickly to building a successful and stable mentorship relationship.

An important part of learning how to ask someone to be your mentor, is making sure that your communication is clear and efficient. For example, I am very clear about what I expect of my prospective mentors, and I am also very clear about how I expect them to respond to my requests for information or examples of how to ask someone to be your mentor. This helps me cut down on the number of times I would have to explain a concept or ask for examples of how to ask someone to be your mentor. Instead, I simply use what I am learning and understanding about censorship in simple phrases or actions that make sense to me. In many ways, I think this is even more effective than sending emails or writing long emails!

As an example of how to ask someone to be your mentor, here are two examples that I often use: If I am seeking some help with my new business, I might say to my mentor, “I am very excited about starting a new business venture with our company. How can we best support each other so we can both be successful?” And if I am having an idea for a new business venture, I might say, “Where do we see ourselves in 5 years?” In either example, I am clearly stating what I need from the person I am asking. It’s a much cleaner, less confusing manner of communicating!

--

--