Last week we were talking about mentor/ mentee relationships where they've been organised by the company. The relationship is different if you've made the arrangement yourself, because:
- you've got more skin in the game (vs. being paired up randomly)
- you had a specific purpose in mind when you created the relationship
- it's harder to call it quits when you're done/ it's not working.

So in that context my biggest tip for this type of mentoring relationship is...contracting.

I suggest that you re-contract every 3-6 months, meaning check in on your objectives for working together and the progress made. This achieves a couple of things, 1) you remember to celebrate successes along the way and 2) gets you to sense check whether the mentoring should continue.

Relationships like these (particularly where you've got recurring invites arranged to protect time in diary) can seemingly go on forever if there isn't a discipline of checking in against some objectives. They can fizzle out or become more like chats and that's not the lasting impression either of you would want to leave.

Either party can bring this up so mention a refresh at your next session to get the focus back or draw a relationship to a close. You can always pick up again in future - leave the door open for the mentee.

I hope this advice supports your mentoring relationships - interested to hear your stories about mentoring.