Mentorships come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Formal, informal, ongoing, one-off… There is no one way to do mentorship, but there are a few general tips we can all leverage for great mentoring experiences from both sides.

GRA Members have an incredible resource in the network of Professional and Associate Members, the Knowledge Share facebook group, networking events, and Committee. There are many opportunities for informal, one-off mentorship for specific questions or feedback.

While GRA does not currently offer any formal mentorship programs, you may also like to pursue some additional mentoring opportunities with other GRA Members. This could be a GR who’s work you particularly admire, resonates with you, or works in your field of interest.

Here are a few ways you might like to approach other GRA Members to help you on your journey.

Be proactive

• Reach out directly to a member, or email GRA if you’d like some guidance on who might be a good fit for you to reach out to in your geographical area.
• Ask if you can catch up for a coffee (in-person or virtual), as you admire their work and have some questions. Make a specific time and stick to it.
• Ask if you can dial in (virtual) or tag along (in-person) to an event they’re working and observe. Many events will be internal and not appropriate for this, but equally there are plenty of public-facing events that could be great opportunities for you to see a GR in action.
• Be aware that some members in our network do offer mentoring as a commercial service. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel comfortable to reach out to them, or that they wouldn’t still love to connect and offer advice. Just be conscious that beyond a certain point a commercial agreement may be suggested.

Be specific

What do you want to work on / learn? We are so lucky to have such a generous community here at GRA. Our members are committed to collective progress and it shows.

To honour their time, make sure you approach them with a specific goal or suggestion (e.g. Do you want to attend an event to observe? Do you have a question about Procreate? Do you want more formal feedback on your work?).

There is nothing more frustrating than being asked on a coffee date to “pick your brain” without any clear purpose. As Brene Brown says, clear is kind.

Come prepared

Once you’ve decided on what you want to get out of this interaction – come prepared. Have your questions written down, examples ready, tech set-up ready… whatever you need to do to make it as easy as possible for your mentor to help you.

Not ready to approach an individual for mentorship but have some questions / a topic you’d like to learn about, or work you’d like feedback on? No worries! GRA has the following opportunities for you:

• Ask a question in the GRA Knowledge Share Facebook Group
• Suggest a topic for our monthly Lunch & Learn events
• Attend a Cheer & Challenge event for feedback on work

GRA are here to support you however we can, so please reach out to us any time if you have questions about the best way to get the most out of your membership and our amazing community.

Want to learn more about mentoring? Sign in to GRA to access the video, or sign-up today to receive full access to GRA members resources.