Potential Downsides For The Mentee

Having a mentor is not always a blessing. Mentors who want to relive their own careers through their mentee, who ‘want to stop you making the mistakes I did' or who have their own agenda for the mentee, can be stifling. Indeed, there is some evidence that having an overbearing mentor is a relatively common cause for young graduates to change employer. Conflict between mentor and line manager in another context can sometimes spill over into the mentee's relationship with either or both. Conversely, having a line manager and mentor who are too cosy can also leave the mentee feeling exposed and reluctant to be too open in mentoring discussions.

Although it is rare in developmental mentoring, in sponsoring mentoring it is common for the relationship to develop unhealthy levels of dependence and for mentor and mentee to end up competing with each other for positions.

Finally, mentors who are locked into advice-giving mode may sometimes give the wrong advice. Mentees need to have the personal strength and awareness to make their own minds up about what they should do, even if the mentor is unhappy about it.

In general, the downsides of mentoring for the mentee emerge only when the mentors are poor or the programme is poorly designed and/or implemented.