The 11 key qualities of a good mentor (and how to find them)

Many businesses struggle to retain talent as a result of the Great Resignation and because almost half the employees in the job market feel they have no path to career development.[1]

On the other hand, by offering employee development, you can make your organization more attractive to talent, retain top employees, and show you’re a values-driven organization. 

A successful mentorship plays a pivotal role in this process. 

However, a successful mentor program requires much more than senior employees coaching junior ones.

For example, you may have an employee that’s great at Kotlin coding, but that doesn’t mean they’re great at teaching others how to code. 

Mentorship requires its own unique skill set, one that supports existing employees so they can grow their abilities and your business. 

So what are the key qualities of a good mentor? 

1. Empathy

2. Relevant skills 

3. Helpful feedback

4. Learning mindset

5. Asking questions

6. Understanding

7. Accountability 

8. Diversity 

9. Investing in others

10. Identifying needs

11. Challenging employees 

Below, we explore the role of the mentor in the workplace, these top 11 qualities of a great mentor, and how to identify them.

What is a mentor?

A mentor is an experienced, accomplished employee who guides junior employees in areas like technical skills and expertise, industry knowledge, and professional development. 

What is the role of a mentor? 

The role of a mentor in the workplace is to establish a hands-on partnership with a developing employee to improve their existing skills, identify areas of improvement, and provide motivation through feedback and active listening. 

Mentors occupy a leadership role beyond training and upskilling to tailor their mentorship program to meet employees’ unique needs and push them out of their comfort zone. 

Why is a good mentor important?

Job candidates want learning and development opportunities.

Although job changes, unemployment rates, and inflation are trending down, finding and retaining talented employees with growth potential remains challenging for many employers. 

The benefits to employers

Having an effective mentor for new and existing employees gives you a leg up on the competition by: 

• Attracting top-tier talent. More than 30% of employees say career development opportunities motivated them to switch jobs. Mentors help create a strong learning culture to attract and retain talent. 

• Increasing productivity. Nearly 90% of mentors and mentees say their mentor experience increases their productivity.[2]

Mentors give their mentees access to their network, experience, and knowledge so mentees don’t have to figure things out on their own. They can spend more time upskilling and improving core competencies to benefit your organization. 

• Improving efficiency: 84% of C-level mentees said their mentors helped them avoid costly mistakes.[3]

When mentors alert mentees about potential pitfalls, mentees can change course to maximize efficiency. 

The benefits to employees

Having a co-worker who’s a good mentor is a huge advantage for many developing employees. Good mentors serve mentees by: 

• Boosting employee engagement. Mentors help mentees deal with workplace conflicts, learn organizational functions, grow their skills, and develop strategies to make life easier, which improves employee engagement. 

• Building better relationships. Mentorships build bonds between employees, increasing motivation, teamwork, and positivity. 

• Leveraging informal mentorships: Research shows that 61% of mentorships form organically. Mentees can benefit from these relationships by building a support and learning network that can carry over to alternate career paths. 

• Increasing job satisfaction: According to research, 90% of mentees are happy in their job. It’s no surprise that the vast majority of workers want to enjoy the work they do. Mentors make this a reality. 

The top 11 qualities of a good mentor and how you can find them

The benefits of mentoring are clear, but how does a good mentor make them a reality? 

Keep in mind mentorship is a skill in its own right. 

Identifying and empowering the right mentor for your employees requires understanding the qualities of a good mentor. 

For example, mentors with a learning mindset consider every situation an opportunity to grow for themselves and their mentees. 

If your mentor can’t take advantage of learning opportunities, your mentees do not develop as quickly and effectively as they otherwise could. 

Besides being a great listener, a mentor also needs to know what they’re talking about. It may seem obvious, but your mentors must have battle-tested skills and abilities to pass on to your junior employees. 

These qualities unlock the mentorship process so your mentors, mentees, and organization can get the most out of the experience. 

The qualities at a glance

1. Empathy and relationship-building skills 

An ideal mentor is empathetic and can easily build rapport with others. 

Empathy and relationship builder are choice words to describe a good mentor.

Workplace empathy refers to an employee’s ability to understand the emotions of a colleague and see things from their perspective.

A good mentor can understand: 

• Where an employee is at in their career journey 

• How they feel about their current role

• How they feel about your organization 

• Their relationships with other employees

• How their personality affects their performance 

Good mentors harness empathy to build a strong relationship and teach the mentee to embrace collaboration and relationship-building. 

When seeking a mentor for new employees, consider the employees who:

1. Show compassion

2. Offer support to other employees in times of need 

3. Respect the opinions of others 

4. Value building strong relationships with colleagues 

In addition to observing your potential mentors, you can use personality tests to identify their workplace motivations, attitudes, and behavioral patterns. 

2. Skills and personality 

A mentor is only as valuable as the skills and expertise they have accumulated over their career. 

In other words, they need to have the skills that they are going to teach. 

Let’s say you’ve hired a junior graphic designer and are considering which employee should mentor them. 

You can use our Adobe Illustrator test to assess your mentor’s relevant hard skills related to graphic design, like:

• Adobe Illustrator basics 

• Stylizing vector graphics

• Creating and editing vector graphics 

• Incorporating types and images

But your mentor should also be creative, communicative, and patient. The mentor is the sounding board and positive role model for the mentee.

Our DISC Personality test is a great tool to identify these personality traits that define their leadership style and their design skills. 

3. Gives honest and helpful feedback 

Good mentors put themselves in their mentees’ shoes. But they’re also open and direct when communicating specific areas or skills that mentees need to work on. 

They offer constructive criticism and feedback to their mentees to address your organization’s internal skills gaps. 

Giving honest and helpful feedback to mentees is a crucial part of the mentorship process, but it also says a lot about your workplace communication. 

Some common pitfalls in workplace communication are: 

• Relying on rigid hierarchies 

• Sending excessive information 

• Neglecting employee needs and preferences 

• Hiring bad communicators

That’s why ensuring your mentors have excellent communication skills and genuinely want their mentees to grow is important. 

With TestGorilla’s Communication Skills test, you can assess your mentor’s skills like active listening, using professional communication etiquette, and understanding and interpreting written communication. 

Establishing workplace communication across your organization ensures your mentors are equipped to understand the mentees’ developmental needs and offer the right feedback. 

4. Learning mindset 

Good mentors consider every new experience an opportunity to learn and grow. 

A mentor with a learning mindset can: 

• Take advantage of learning and development opportunities 

• Ask important questions

• Reflect on their thoughts, feelings, and skills 

• Look at their work as a career, not just a job 

• Communicate their needs and goals

A good mentor becomes a role model for these behaviors for their mentees and encourages their growth through knowledge and hard work. 

Besides personality assessments, you can take your mentorship process further and use behavioral interviews to assess the personality traits of your mentor candidates. 

5. Asks meaningful questions

Good mentors should also ask questions that invite mentees to think more deeply about a subject, process, or project. 

Instead of asking a mentee, “How would you get this done?” a good mentor might ask,  “What’s your process for approaching new or complex problems?”

Or instead of asking, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” a good mentor might ask, “What about this work is fulfilling for you?” 

In addition to skills-related questions, mentors can ask mentees situational questions to learn more about the mentees’ current knowledge, skills, and abilities. 

By asking mentees to describe how they would behave in certain situations, mentors engage them on a deeper level and ask them to flex their reasoning skills and situational awareness. 

Good mentors take advantage of these resources, but you can also gauge their genuine interest and curiosity in others by evaluating their behavioral competencies in the workplace like: 

• Communication skills

• Leadership skills

• Critical thinking skills

• Relationship-building skills

• Ethics

• Business acumen 

6. Seeks understanding over judgment 

Good mentors understand that their mentees are going to make mistakes. That’s how all of us learn and grow. 

Your mentor must exercise patience and resist the urge to judge a mentee when they inevitably hit a speed bump. 

So, what to look for in a good mentor?

But how do you measure whether someone is objective, flexible, and articulate? 

Behavioral tests are powerful tools that provide detailed information about the behavioral styles of your potential mentors. 

Our Enneagram Personality test, for example, maps out nine different personality types that people can have. 

No personality type is better or worse than another. The ideal personality type for your organization depends on your unique goals and the needs of your mentors and mentees. 

The Peacemaker Enneagram type, for example, would make an empathetic mentor but may be hesitant to give their mentees direct and honest feedback. 

The Investigator Enneagram type has a learning mindset to join their mentees in their developmental journey but may show detachment on an interpersonal level. 

If you want to build an effective mentorship program, match mentees with mentors with matching personality types and values. 

7. Values accountability 

Good mentors set an example for their mentees beyond staying on top of their responsibilities and learning new skills. 

They accept their mistakes and are honest when uncertain about how to move forward. 

In other words, an employer must establish a workplace accountability culture. 

But accountability isn’t a top-down process. 

Good mentors encourage their mentees to hold mentors accountable for the goals they set, instructions they outline, and practices they adopt. 

If mentees are empowered to hold their mentors accountable, peer-to-peer accountability to create high-performing teams increases. 

Good mentors also understand that accountability isn’t simply calling themselves or others out. The goal of accountability is to find meaningful ways to move forward after someone makes a mistake or crosses a boundary. 

Accountability increases team performance and helps create a positive workplace culture. 

8. Values diverse perspectives 

Diversity in the workplace is ethical and has many benefits for an organization like:

• Boosting creativity and innovation 

• Solving problems faster

• Improving decision-making and adaptability 

• Increasing productivity and performance 

• Improving brand image 

• Boosting employee engagement 

• Reducing turnover 

Good mentors understand the benefits of diverse perspectives and work hard to include them within your organization. 

Your mentors should have a strong grasp of diversity, equity, and inclusion principles and initiatives to treat each employee and mentee with dignity and respect. 

It’s also important to note that overcoming unconscious bias takes time and effort. Select mentors who acknowledge their own biases and the steps they need to take to overcome them. 

9. Eager to invest in others 

One of the key qualities of a good mentor is their dedication to their personal and professional relationships. 

Good mentors build a professional mentor-mentee relationship and nurture it for the long term. 

They invest their time and energy into supporting and challenging their mentees and fellow employees. 

What does that investment look like? Mentors invest in others by: 

• Making themselves available to questions, concerns, and ideas

• Giving meaningful advice 

• Focusing on the mentee instead of seeking attention 

• Having a friendly and positive attitude 

• Asking questions and avoiding an authoritarian leadership style

• Seeking to learn from mentees

This last point is a mentorship strategy on its own. 

Reverse mentoring is an excellent way to increase investment between mentors and mentees. 

It takes the traditional mentoring process and flips it so that the junior employee mentors the senior employee on cultural perspectives and technical skills that the reverse mentee may be unfamiliar with. 

Reverse mentoring empowers junior employees to lead by example and communicate their unique points of view. 

Regardless of who your mentor is or their job title, investing in others requires trust in the workplace. Why? Because it’s difficult to invest in those around you if you don’t trust each other. 

10. Identifies employee needs and strengths 

Having empathy and giving honest feedback are important qualities for a mentor. 

However, they won’t have a tangible impact on your organization if not directed toward employee needs and strengths. 

In other words, good mentors put people first. 

They can locate areas of improvement for mentees and celebrate their existing skills and abilities. 

They don’t obsess over costs, numbers, and targets. They don’t treat mentees as a means to an end. 

Successful mentors guide employees to solutions instead of telling them the answers and recognize that everyone develops at their own pace. 

Mentors can take advantage of role-specific skills tests to see how mentees perform. 

They can also assess how mentees think by using cognitive ability tests. 

Cognitive ability tests, role-specific tests, and other multi-measure assessments are great hiring tools and strengthen your existing workforce throughout the mentorship process. 

11. Challenges employees to develop 

You shouldn’t expect mentors to be buddies with their mentees. Their role is not to make sure their mentees are always having fun. 

Good mentors should challenge their mentees to develop and grow. 

They have excellent critical thinking skills and use them to interpret their mentees’ experiences to push them forward. 

But sometimes, there’s a fine line between challenging someone and over-burdening them. 

Good mentors aren’t drill sergeants. They recognize the mentees’ needs and strengths and then offer them opportunities to put their skills to the test. 

For example, a mentee may have basic accounting skills, like how to: 

• Manage books of accounts 

• Handle year-end adjustments 

• Record financial transactions 

• Prepare and analyze financial statements 

A good mentor can offer them our Advanced Accounting test to see where they need to improve or encourage them to seek advanced certifications, like a Certified Public Accountant license or a Certified Fraud Examiner certification. 

Not every mentee enjoys the challenge to develop, but a good mentor recognizes whether a mentee is committed to taking meaningful steps forward. 

Harness the qualities of a good mentor to grow your business 

Mentoring programs benefit your mentees, mentors, and your business. 

Harnessing the good qualities of a mentor, like empathy, patience, compassion, and accountability, can accelerate employee development and build a positive workplace culture. 

But the best mentors also have the relevant skills and knowledge to inform their perspective on mentees’ development. 

They seek to understand their mentees’ unique situations and goals and avoid judgment and harsh criticism. 

Good mentors should always value diverse perspectives, not only because it’s the right thing to do but because it benefits their own growth and empowers their mentees. 

Good mentors don’t shy away from challenges in their efforts to support and upskill their mentees. 

They understand that throwing a mentee into the deep end once in a while is a great way to improve their confidence and professional development. 

How do you find these skills in a mentor? 

Try using skills assessments to measure their knowledge and abilities and personality tests, like our 16 Personalities test, to evaluate their behavioral traits and leadership style. 

Sources

1. De Smet, Aaron, et al. (July 13, 2022). "The Great Attrition is making hiring harder. Are you searching the right talent pools?". McKinsey & Company. Retrieved July 26, 2023. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-great-attrition-is-making-hiring-harder-are-you-searching-the-right-talent-pools

2. Francis, Laura. “Mentoring Makes Employees Happy and Productive”. mentorcliQ. Retrieved July 26, 2023. https://www.mentorcliq.com/blog/mentoring-makes-employees-happy-and-productive 

3. de Janasz, Suzanne; Peiperl, Maury. (April 2015). “CEOs Need Mentors Too”. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved July 26, 2023. https://hbr.org/2015/04/ceos-need-mentors-too