1. Effective mentoring is built on the credibility of the mentor and the confidence of the mentee in the value of the relationship.
While it is true that not all effective practitioners or leaders make good mentors, it is also true that a mentor must have some significant life experience in the area in which they mentor. If a mentor is working with leaders, there must be considerable reflective experience of leadership upon which a mentor draws. If mentoring is more in the area of spiritual formation, the mentor needs to have walked a journey with God. Mentoring is somewhat different to counselling in this regard. No one expects a counsellor to have personally faced all the psychological issues with which they work. With a mentor, there is an expectation that enough life experience has been acquired, integrated and reflected upon to give the mentor credibility to adapt this to build into the lives of others. A mentee needs to develop the confidence out of life sharing that they will grow through the relationship.
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