High Impact Mentoring Questions
Great conversations are the foundation of a successful mentoring relationship. You can build rapport, increase understanding and encourage your mentee by asking impactful questions. The process of answering these questions helps the learner think through options from different perspectives. It also reduces natural defensiveness toward suggestions and ideas. Gradually, next steps become clearer!
Here are powerful, high impact questions to elevate your mentoring conversations:
Tell me more about…
Where are you stuck?
How can I help?
Give me an example of…
Describe how you…
Help me understand …
How do you see…?
What might happen if you…?
Have you considered…?
Investigative Questions: What, when, and where
Tell me what you have accomplished so far.
How long have you worked on this?
Who else has been involved?
Tell me about your career accomplishments.
What strategies have helped you reach this point?
Discovery Questions: Push learning and stimulate thinking
What is important about that to you?
What have you learned from this experience?
How else could you think about this?
What are you most proud of?
What worked well? What didn’t? What could still be developed?
What inspired …?
What’s the best thing that could happen; what’s the worst?
What are your alternatives?
How do you feel about that?
If you could do anything, what would you do?
What does your gut tell you?
What is at risk for you?
What if you do nothing and stay with the status quo?
How did you get to that conclusion?
Empowering Questions: Call for action and transfer ownership
What would you like to change?
What outcomes are you after?
What do you have to do to make it happen?
What’s your first step?
What resources do you have; what do you need?
What’s one thing you could do right away?
For more strategies on building successful mentoring relationships in your organization contact Legacy Talent Development.