Mentoring

Tips for the manager of a mentor

If the mentor does a good job, her productivity may slow down some during the mentoring period. If you've got an engineer involved in a time-sensitive project, you may not want to push him into mentoring at the same time. Because this is an additional responsibility, treat it as you would any other important additional responsibility you might hand out. Look for someone that you believe can succeed in the role, and who wants to distinguish herself beyond her coding ability.

[...] Because the outcome can be hard to quantitatively measure, emotional labor is often dismissed as less important work than writing software. It's assumed to be something that should just be provided without financial recognition. I'm not suggesting that you should pay people extra money to serve as mentors, but they need to be recognized for the work they put in, and the mentor should be treated as a first-class citizen with respect to other responsibilities the person might have. As I said before, plan for it, and provide the mentor the time to do the job right.

Key takeaways for the mentor: listen and speak their language

Senior engineers can develop bad habits, and one of the worst is the tendency to lecture and debate with anyone who does not understand them or who disagrees with what they are saying. To work successfully with a newcomer or a more junior teammate, you must be able to listen and communicate in a way that person can understand, even if you have to try several times to get it right. Software development is a team sport in most companies, and teams have to communicate effectively to get anything done.

Camille Fournier, "Mentoring", in The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change, chapter 2.