Why is a Trusting Relationship Important for Mentoring?
Remember the metaphor that trust is the “envelope” for effective mentoring communication. • The protégé must feel “safe” enough to share problems, try new strategies, and make mistakes while learning to do those new strategies. That is how skill and judgment are built. Not only must the protégé be willing to do these things but these risks must be taken in front of another more experienced person. • The feelings of safety create a low-risk learning environment in which the protégé becomes willing to take the risk of failing for the sake of building new skills and growing professionally. • The mentor must lead in creating this low-risk, positive, supportive learning environment, first by building and earning trust, and second, by demonstrating the value of being vulnerable. • Without this trust and the safety it creates it may be that little learning and growth will occur. • With trust and safety, the protégé and the mentor will experience accelerated learning and growth.
