Strive for Reciprocal Learning

Pursue equality in your relationship. Learning happens best when it occurs on a level playing field. If your protégé sees you as a fellow learner (rather than as an “I’ll show you” smarty-pants), there is greater potential for a partnership. With partnership come acceptance, joint contribution, and growth.

Seek something your protégé knows that you would like to learn, and couple your mentoring with being a protégé to your protégé. Better still, pursue an area in which you both want to learn. Reciprocity is rarely a perfectly balanced fifty-fifty. Healthy relationships in all areas of life are sixty-forty one week and forty-sixty the next. Over time, however, the give-and-take clearly reflects a fair balance.