Student Question: I’ve been with the company for three months. A new colleague recently joined, and my supervisor asked me to mentor them.
For one, I see this as an opportunity to develop myself. For another, since I haven’t been here long and don’t have a lot of experience, I worry my explanations might not land clearly. Knowing the new hire is also fresh to the workforce, when I delegate tasks I try to walk her through my own thought process so she can understand and get up to speed quickly.
She and I are at the same level, and we’ll be handling the same areas going forward. At a recent team meeting, she brought up wanting to learn more about certain parts of the business, implying I hadn’t covered some of those areas with her yet.
Hearing that made me quite uncomfortable.
Throughout the mentoring process, I feel I’ve given it my all. Whenever she comes to me for help and I’m not swamped, I always answer her patiently.
So I’m genuinely confused, and I’d like to ask Master Chi: how should one go about mentoring a new hire?
Master Chi’s Response: The first and most fundamental condition for mentoring someone is this: the new hire must respect your effort and recognize the value of what you’re teaching them.
They don’t need to be endlessly grateful — but they do need to take it seriously.
That’s why when hiring, what I value most is not a person’s experience or ability, but their character. Someone who is selfish and self-serving should never be brought on board.
In your situation, just treat it as a normal work assignment and handle it accordingly. If the other person lacks the right character, there’s no need to waste too much of your time on them.