The Mentor’s Field Guide
Most mentoring advice describes what good mentoring looks like in the abstract. This is different: a self-guided, 13-page workbook built for the person actually doing the mentoring, with space to write directly on the page as you go.
Across six practical disciplines, from narrating your thinking out loud to protecting your own time, it turns “keep an eye on them” into something you can genuinely do well, and gives every idea a specific action to try this week.
There’s no scoring and nothing to submit. It’s a working document to return to as new situations come up, built around one underlying goal: a junior colleague who needs you a little less every month.
A workbook built to be written in, not just read
Every section pairs a short piece of practical guidance with a worksheet, checklist, or reflection prompt, so the ideas turn into habits, not just good intentions.
13 pages
Six disciplines, applied to your actual week
Every experienced professional already does some of this instinctively. The guide makes each discipline explicit enough to practise on purpose.
Narrate your thinking
Make the invisible parts of your judgement visible, in the ordinary course of the day, not just in formal reviews.
Calibrate the stretch
Hand over work that’s a step beyond their last success: reachable, but never guaranteed.
Know your moment to step in
Tell productive struggle from the sinking kind, and act, or deliberately hold back, accordingly.
Give feedback that lands
Specific, quick, and kind: one thing to keep, one thing to change. No lists, no dilution.
Protect your own time
Batch the teachable moments and hold a regular slot, rather than being interrupted at random.
Stay kind on the hard weeks
Growth isn’t linear. Name a plateau without frustration, and notice the wins out loud.
Built from six disciplines any experienced professional can apply, in any role, not a mentoring theory course.
Includes three questions to run through before handing any piece of work over.
Comes with worksheets, reflection prompts, and a personal action plan you fill in yourself.
Written for the person actually doing the mentoring, not a policy binder that sits on a shelf.
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Read it once, in full, before your first real conversation, then keep it within reach for the months that follow.
Download PDFPair it with the workbook that comes before it
Mentoring in the Age of AI
This downloadable resource is one of the supporting materials for our featured article. Read the full article to understand the complete framework, practical examples, and implementation strategies. This guide is designed to complement it as an easy-to-use reference.
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Thirteen pages, six disciplines, and a place to write your own commitment as a mentor.
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