Table 1.

Ten traits required to be a mentor

Self-awareness: You should have a good understanding of your strengths and development needs.

Organizational know-how: You should know how to get things done and how things work.

Credibility: You should have personal and professional credibility, this may include being a member of relevant organizations.

Accessibility: You should be willing and able to commit sufficient time to your mentee to offer support and guidance.

Communication: you need excellent communication skills and be able to understand the ideas and feelings of others. You also need to be a great listener.

Ability to empower: You should be able to create a working environment where it is safe for individuals to try out different things, allowing them to contribute in different ways.

A desire to help others develop: you should understand how individuals develop and have the experience, either formally or informally, of developing others.

Inventiveness: Be open to new ways of doing things and different ways of working.

Empathy: Ability to empathize with others.

Understanding: You should be prepared to try to understand different perspectives, approaches, and possibly backgrounds of different mentees.

From Mentoring Guidelines, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK[14]