There are different activities and stages that naturally occur as you mentor someone. These stages of a mentor’s involvement will be especially relevant if you view your mentor relationship as an assignment, i.e. a series of conversations with an intended duration. For example, you may agree an assignment to provide mentoring support for a period of 18 months and meet your mentee, in person, every 6–8 weeks, for 90-minute conversations.

If your approach is less defined, then the following process can still improve the impact of your mentoring. It will help you to decide where you need a little more structure and which activities you may not require. The journey will describe the stages (or milestones) from setting up all the way through to parting ways.