Introduction

The term facilitative, when applied to mentoring, primarily refers to the exploration of a mentee’s personal and professional perception of available options. Such a task, however, should be undertaken only after the mentor has accumulated enough factual information to ensure that a realistic profile of the mentee has been achieved. In the absence of sufficient knowledge of the mentee, the mentor risks the strong possibility that advice and guidance offered in good faith may have superficial or minimal value, and sometimes, may even contribute to counterproductive decisions.