Avoid Inappropriate Competition

Mentors should also be careful to avoid the unfortunate trap of arguing with mentees as if the rationale were to score debate points. Ideally, mentees should be openly encouraged to reevaluate their opinions and beliefs, especially if they are derived from a background that is truly limited in depth and scope. However, mentors also should be alert to the disservice of intellectually jousting mentees into a more compliant position; this type of engagement could inadvertently place mentees in the difficult situation of feeling almost compelled to dismiss or invalidate their own history as a source of legitimate reference.

Such a polarizing and competitive agenda could introduce a most unwelcome element into the early mutual contact because the mentor could end up as a patronizing or condescending authority figure and the mentee as a person whose self-confidence is undermined rather than strengthened.