Presentation delivered by Pablo Junco to the HOLA Community at Microsoft. The objective was to provide guidelines to people how want to become a mentor (or improve their skills as mentor. HOLA stands for Hispanic & Latino Organization of Leaders in Action. HOLA provides professional development and networking opportunities for members and allies of the LatinX and Hispanic communities.

1. So, You Want to Be Mentor
HOLA LATAM – South Florida
Wednesday, January 19, 2022

2. Learning
Objectives
• Describe the role of a mentor
• Prepare yourself for mentoring
• List the stages of mentoring
• Familiarize with the skills required to be
a mentor
• Discover few mentoring hints
• Share my own experience (still learning)
• Connect mentors and people willing to
became a mentor

3. Born in
Cuba (18 years)
Dutch
Nationality
Spanish
Professional - & more -
Culture (22 years)
Temporally
Living in USA
(5+ years)
1997
My first job as
Software
Engineer
Bachelor's of Computer
Engineering
2000
SPAIN (Sr. Consultant → ITAP → Digital Advisor → Global ATS/CTL) →
CORP (Dir. BPM Azure Apps) → LATAM (MCS CTO → STU D&AI)
1998 – 2005
EDS
(Software Engineer, Senior Consultant
→ Team Leader → Technical Director)
My journey started at
Microsoft
2005
Coffee
Lover
Cooking
Coaching
Biking Trekking
Swimming Diving
Married w/ Two Children
Hola, I’m Pablo

4. Technology is my Passion https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablojunco/ My INSIGHTS® Profile
My DiSC® Profile
My Leadership Style (still learning & evolving)

5. Mentor
A person who gives a person who wants to learn guidance
and advice on career choices, decisions, and goals ​​​​​​​over a
period of time

6. “
A mentor is someone who allows
you to see the hope inside
yourself. A mentor is someone who
allows you to know that no matter
how dark the night, in the morning
joy will come. A mentor is someone
who allows you to see the higher
part of yourself when sometimes it
becomes hidden to your own view.
”
Oprah Winfrey
American talk show host, television producer, actress,
author, and philanthropist.

7. Task Support
Introductions to others help grow their network, honest feedback
Peer Support
Cheerleader for them, encouragement, helping affirm something is
right
Serve as role model
Behavior, success, technical expertise is deemed a success
Mentoring two-way street
You’re giving so you want something back too, maybe to become a
better leader or enhance leadership skills
What is Mentoring?

8. Requirements for mentoring relationship
Trust Collaboration Guidance
for both mentor and mentee

9. Essential factors in a successful mentoring relationship
a defined goal a well-matched pair

10. Mentoring doesn’t have to be…
a monogamous
relationship
your responsibility to fulfil your
mentee needs all the time
you driving meeting
appointments
you doing all the work
you giving all you have
uncomfortable
having all the answers
constantly problem solving
help to change jobs

11. If you want to be a mentor, then
 Remember what it was like for you having a mentor, and always try to put yourself in
the other person place
 Don’t wait to have a mentee, start by offering your perspective and feedback to your co-
workers
 Get ready to learn from the other person (mentoring isn’t about us)
 Try to engage on a long-term relationship (6 – 12 months)
 When you find a mentee (or she/he find you), make sure you are compatible with her/him
and ensure she/he is committed and available
 Get ready to treat your mentee like a research project (be curious)
 Make sure you don’t enter troubleshooting mode immediately. Instead focus developing
capabilities/skills and the root of the problem.
 Be prepared to give feedback to their manager on how they are doing, additional
training they might need, etc.

12. Benefits of mentoring
Leadership skill development
Practice the art of asking questions and delivering feedback
Becoming a good listener
Exposure to new and different perspectives
Growing a personal network
Supporting and helping another person while learning from her or him
Improve goal-setting
Learn from other's experiences
Increased self-confidence and self-awareness
Learn to ask good questions
Increased chance of growing in a role and even a promotion
For Mentors For Mentee
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Develop strong communication skills X X

13. Nine (9) stages to mentoring
When to connect and how
frequently
What topics you will
address
Clear about communication
channels
High quality connect
Connect with them
Breakdown the status
bubble
Be a real person
Tell them about your
learning moments
Make them comfortable
Tell them success and
failure stories
Honest feedback
Tough love
Be encouraging but be
open, honest, RESPECTFUL
Agree on
a process
Goal/Skill
Clarity
Be
proactive
Be
Authentic
Probe with
Questions
Take a mentor yourself
Improve your own
mentoring technique
Study your own role
model
Making
Connections
Get a
Mentor
Expand their world
Join groups you belong to
Networking
Make introductions
Identify people who will be
good for them
Actively listen
Find the gaps
Listen more talk less
Have you made progress?
Has the relationship been
successful for both?
Don’t let relationship go flat
1
Clear define your goals
with timelines
What skill set is needed
to achieve the goals
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Be
Frank
Check
Up

14. Introductory Meeting
Discovery
• What general type of mentoring are your mentee looking for?
• Why your mentee want a mentor? What are her/his goals? Why
it is important to her/him?
• What do she/he hope to get out of the mentoring? What are
her/his expectations?
• What kind of feedback or assistance are your mentee looking
for? What type of feedback works best for her/him?
Knowing each other / Looking forward
• Dedicate time to understand the Individual (i.e., professional
drivers, career aspirations, behavioral style – DiSC profile –,
learning style, etc.)
• Discuss her/his career development plan
• Share your own mentoring story (as a mentee)
• Suggest a framework to work to

15. Getting a DiSC Profile to understand
yourself and your mentee better
The following steps are suggested ways to leverage the DiSC assessment and other free
resources on the web as expert analysis requires a nominal fee.
Step 1: Visit either of the following websites to obtain your DiSC profile result. It should
take about 10 min to complete the survey:
• https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/ or
• https://www.onlinepersonalitytests.org/disc
Step 2: Use the following chart to understand your dominant behavior style and non-
dominant behavior style.
Note: If used in a team setting, put each team member’s dominant style on the chart.
Step 3: Check your own personality style based on the 25 personality styles by DISC. E.g.
If you are D and I dominate, then your style is DI – Concluder.
http://www.movedbypurpose.net/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-manager/3_25-
Personality-Styles-based-on-DISC.pdf
Step 4: You can ask your mentee, close friend, partner, or long-time acquaintance to see
if the personality style accurately describes yourself. Will this be the style you prefer
others to, see?
Make necessary changes to give more focus in other styles of behaviors. As example, a
dominant people can benefit from being more supportive to people surrounding them
and being more sensitive to others.
Click here to read
Pablo Junco’s DiSC Profile

16. Example of advices given by my previous mentor
“ Discover what you naturally do best, to maximize your
potential. ”
“ Identify your weaknesses and partner with people with
strengths in the topic. ”
“ Invest time in being an open book to other people.
Transparency creates trust. Trust creates velocity. ”

17. Skills discussion
Skill Short Description Perceived as Positive or
Negative
Top 10 Skills (5 positive and 5 negative)
Be curious while you continue with the discussion and truly understand the individual
• Why was a skill categorized as negative or positive?
• When a skill can be a good tool in the opposite situation (i.e., if negative, when turns to positive)
• Which as the ways to improve the skills? To build trust, share your own experience

19. Tips to have a Productive Mentoring Session
BEFORE
• Mentee sends over a session
agenda including their desired
discussion areas, outline of
current challenges, key
progress updates, and any
leftover actions from the last
session.
• If relevant, the mentor can
add any topics or points to
the agenda and send it back,
so that everyone is aware of
the key focuses beforehand.
DURING
• Check in
• Decide on a main focus
• Review actions from last session
• Explore challenges
• Create a plan
• Reflect on
• Actions for next
• Book next session
AFTER
• Mentee sends a follow up with the
key takeaways from the session, the
list of actions, and the details of the
next session.
• Mentor can respond with any
relevant information or links to
resources that were discussed in the
session that may help the mentee.

20. • What’s the problem being solved?
• What do you want to achieve?
• SMART (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-Bound)
GOAL
REALITY
OPTIONS
WAY
FORWARD
• Where are you now in relation to your goal?
• What progress have you made in achieving your goal?
• What barriers are there?
• How can you close the gap between reality and your goal?
• Have you overcome similar problems before?
• Pros and cons list
• What behaviors need to change?
• What commitments do you need to make
• What actions do you need to achieve this
G
R
O
W
The GROW Model

21. The GROW Model | Questions to drive the discussion
• Where do you want to be?
• Describe in detail what your ideal end point looks like
• List some specifics about variations of that end point
• In a scale on 1 to 10 (10 being best) how hopeful are
you that you reach the end point
• What are sub goals that accompany the big goal?
GOAL
• Where are you right now with this goal?
• What strengths can you use to achieve your goal?
• What assumptions do you have about reached your
potential?
• What obstacles are you facing?
• What strengths are available to help you take steps
toward your goal?
REALITY
• What are some of the options to reaching your goal?
• Which choice energizes you most
• If money was no object, what would you do
• How do you want to progress
OPTIONS
• What is your first step forward?
• What are the sub steps that need to be taken?
• When will you know you’ve reached your goal?
• How will you be held accountable
• Who needs to be included in your process?
• How will you celebrate your wins?
WAY FORWARD

22. Being a great mentor
• Be honest about yourself
• Show honesty and transparency
• Ensure you have the time
• Listen, think and respond
• Set goals and objectives
• Keep learning
• Keep networking
• Set parameters and boundaries
Perhaps saying sorry I’m not the right mentor for you
Be prepared to disagree constructively
Be available and don’t clock watch during your meetup
Don’t be scared to say ‘I don’t know’
By X we will have worked together to achieve Y
Keep up your own learning
Keep a fresh strong people network
When is it OK to communicate, how often?

23. MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL – FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY
What is Next?
Monthly Office Hours for Mentors
(a space to learn by sharing & collaboration)

24. Thank You

26. Mentoring at Microsoft: MENTOR Quick Guide
What is a Mentor?
A mentor supports and partners with the mentee to…
• Build a relationship of mutual trust
• Identify areas in which the mentee wants to develop themselves
• Be an objective and supportive resource for your mentee on their journey
There is no one size fits all mentoring program; every partnership is unique and develops over time. As you build a relationship with
your mentee and understand their goals and concerns, you can tailor your mentoring to meet their specific needs.
A Practical Guide to Being a Mentor:
Step 1: Build the
relationship
✓ Ask questions to learn about
your mentee and better
understand their needs, goals,
and ideas.
✓ Learn why the mentee has
joined the mentoring
program. What was their
motivation?
✓ Focus on listening. Be attuned
to the mentee’s feelings and
attitudes.
Step 2: Start where your
mentee wants to begin
✓ Ask insightful questions that
inspire your mentee to explore
what matters to them, both
professionally and personally.
✓ Help them determine next steps.
✓ Your mentee may have different
goals, aspirations, and ideas than
you expect. Put aside
assumptions and respect where
the individual currently is in their
developmental process.
Step 3: Create a safe
space
✓ Build trust by listening and
asking questions to clarify and
ensure understanding.
✓ Ensure conversations are private
and confidential.
A mentor is a “guide on the side, not
a sage on the stage”
Step 4: Bring your
best self
✓ Be fully present and prepared
for every conversation.
✓ Limit distractions during
interactions.
✓ Turn the camera on if meeting
virtually. Seeing facial and
nonverbal cues enhances
communication.

27. Mentoring at Microsoft: MENTOR Quick Guide
Tips for Managing the Mentor/Mentee Relationship
Create belonging, acceptance, and connection
✓ Before beginning any mentoring conversation, check in with your mentee. Have a short informal chat with your
mentee about non-work topics.
Ask questions that create self-awareness, inspire insights and ideas
✓ Ask insightful questions to enhance the mentee’s self-awareness and encourage critical thinking.
✓ Allow time for the mentee to think and explore divergent answers.
Provide feedback based on mentee’s goals
✓ Provide feedback that is directly correlated to areas the mentee has chosen to develop.
✓ Provide positive feedback on actions and behaviors mentees should continue to attain their goals.
✓ Provide developmental feedback on behaviors that might be hindering mentee’s progression.
Be empathetic and vulnerable
✓ Share work experiences when you were successful and when you failed. Share lessons you learned.
✓ Show empathy by acknowledging what the mentee is experiencing. Be encouraging and supportive.
Meetings
✓ Have regularly scheduled meetings or commit to scheduling the next meeting at the end of the call.
✓ Private space and uninterrupted time are important for confidential conversations.
Check in on mentee’s goal direction
✓ Find out if their initial goal is still meaningful. Does it need to be modified?
✓ Has their motivation changed?
✓ Check in to see if the mentoring relationship still meets their goals and expectations.
✓ Ask how you can help.
RESOURCES. Take advantage of all
the resources available to support
your mentor journey
• Why be a mentor
• Preparing for your mentoring
intro meeting
• Mentoring meeting guide.
• Navigating mentoring
relationship challenges
• How to close a mentoring
relationship