Module 3 · Chapter 7

Mentor Down

Someone always starts after you. Here is what to say on their first morning, how to hand over work and give feedback, and how to write a page they can run without you.

≈ 11 min read 8-question test

In this chapter

  • Why the person one step ahead is the right one to ask first
  • What to say on a trainee's first morning, and how to brief a task
  • How to give feedback, and how to write a page a trainee can run alone

7.1Mentoring from one step ahead

Someone always starts after you: a trainee, a paralegal, the new intake. They ask you first, because your desk is nearest and your memory is freshest. Nobody gives you the job in words. It comes with being one step ahead.

Five months after Tess qualified, a new trainee sits down at the next desk. He asks whether he can ask just a quick question. Tess said “just” four times on her own first morning (Chapter 1). Now she hears it from the other side.

Key point

You mentor from one step ahead, not from the summit. The step above you still exists, and you use it.

Also in this chapter

  1. Why the trainee asks you first
  2. Three things to say on day one
  3. A brief in four parts
  4. Feedback the same day, and why “fine” is not feedback
  5. A page the trainee can run without you
  6. Your job

Preview

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