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Management & Leadership vocabulary · Leadership Styles and Skills

Mentor

Meaning in management & leadership, with examples

/ˈmentɔːr/nounCommon term

In management & leadership, mentor means: An experienced person who gives advice, shares knowledge and supports the career development of a less experienced colleague over a longer period.

In Turkish: mentor, akıl hocası, rehber

How it is used

Many companies run mentoring programmes that pair new managers with senior ones. You find, have or act as a mentor, and the other person is the mentee. Mentor is also a verb: 'She mentors two young engineers.'

Example sentences

  1. My first mentor taught me how to handle difficult clients.

  2. Every graduate on the programme is assigned a mentor from another department.

Common collocations

  • act as a mentor
  • mentoring programme
  • find a mentor
  • mentor and mentee
  • reverse mentoring
  • coachingA way of helping someone improve their skills and performance mainly by asking questions and guiding them to find their own answers, rather than telling them what to do.
  • leadershipThe ability to guide a group of people towards a shared goal, and the act of doing so, through example, influence and clear direction rather than authority alone.
  • succession planningThe process of identifying and preparing people who can take over key roles, especially senior leadership roles, when the current holders leave or retire.
  • talent managementThe way an organisation attracts, develops, keeps and moves its most capable people, so that it has the right skills in the right roles now and in the future.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Leadership Styles and Skills

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