What is your vision for your mentorship experience?

Setting a vision for your mentorship experience. 

Creating a vision always comes first. Even if you don't write it down before you start, in any endeavor you have an idea of what you want to get out of it by the end. That's your vision.

It is a bit buzzwordy to have a vision but what we mean here is to set an intention for the project. What you intend to achieve. 

Intension is a clear vision of a desired outcome.

Once you create a vision for anything it makes it much easier to develop strategy, action plans, milestones and tasks. 

In this article we give you an idea of how to develop a vision for your mentorship experience. This is a must for mentees and may also be useful for mentors. 

What is a vision?

A vision is an illustration of the where you want to be or what you want to create in the future.

It is a picture of the potential on offer, that has not yet occured.

Vision is when architects dream of new buildings and designs. Or when business people dream of growing their business.

So why is Vision important in Mentorship?

You need to be clear on why you are doing this

Developing a vision helps to clarify your thinking and motivations. 

A vision shows us and reminds us where we are heading

By setting a vision you know where you want to go. It keeps you on track. It keeps you focussed.

A vision is the first step on the path to building a plan.

Before you develop an action plan you need an overarching picture of where you want to be at the end of any project. An action plan brings activity and impact.

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. – Annie Dillard, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, 1975

Vision keeps us motivated

Reminding yourself of your vision keeps you going. It reminds you of your "Why?"

How to create a vision for your mentorship:

• Go somewhere you won't be disturbed for 20 minutes- we want you to focus. 

• Take a pad and pencil/ pen

• Think about what you want to get out of the mentorship experience.

  Psst: It is OK if you do not know yet. Your mentor will help you. 

• Where do you want to be?
• What is your main focus for getting involved?
  • Mentees remind yourself here. 
  • Mentors remind yourself here.

1. How will this experience improve your impact? 

2. Write this all down as a brainstorm or mind map or whatever form gets you focussed. 
3. Add a time limit to your vision. You decide how long you want the mentorship to be. 
4. Discuss the vision with your mentor. This will be used to start to build your action plan. 
5. On discussion with your mentor tidy up the vision into one or two sentences which summarise why you are doing this.  Stick this somewhere visible so that you can check in with it every so often.

Forget how you are going to achieve this vision for now. Over the coming months your mentor will help you put some structure into an action plan to work towards.