Introduction
Mentoring in technical support is not an easy task. It is not only a matter of having the technical skills and the knowledge to do it, but it is also a matter of how these technical skills and knowledge are transferred and presented to your mentees.
In this article, I am going to give you some tips that will help you as a mentor in technical support.
What is a Technical Mentor?
A technical mentor focuses on improving the mentees’ technical expertise, by guiding them, teaching them and helping them to expand their technical knowledge.
The knowledge and the skills a technical mentor delivers to mentees may manifest in different activities, such as:
Teaching problem-solving techniques.
Explaining prioritizing methods, and decision-making.
Teaching and explaining technical tools and methodologies, used by the technical support engineers.
Explaining how to use documentation and internal knowledge base.
Explaining methods and strategies to deal with customers.
Improving communication skills.
Inviting mentees to meetings with customers to understand their needs.
Assigning practical exercises and tasks to mentees to help them improve their skills
Preparing technical guidebooks that cover the basics of the technologies the mentees will be using.
Being a resource to answer mentees’ questions.
Teaching mentees ways to find the answers to their questions by themselves.
Good mentors vs. Bad mentors
It is not an easy task to tell if the mentor is good or bad because this is usually feedback received from the mentees. However, that cannot be always correct because the mentees can also be good or bad. Generally, good and bad mentors can be categorized like this:
1. Good mentors:
They are encouraging.
They accept mistakes, and see them as a chance to learn and improve.
They want their mentees to succeed and see themselves as part of the team.
They warn their mentees about falling into traps and to avoid unwanted acts by the customers or the organization, but they leave the choice to you.
They are passionate and teach their mentees with love.
They care about their mentees' improvement, and they are happy to see them getting better.
They are not bothered by the fact their mentees know more than they do.
They take in consideration what their mentees want to do.
They admit it when they don't know something.
They connect their mentees to other good mentors.
2. Bad mentors:
They are are pushy.
They see their mentees mistakes as failure.
They don't like to repeat themselves or teach the same thing again and again.
They care more about their success and see the mentees as a means for them.
They are impacting their mentees choices.
They force them to use their ideas.
They don't care much about your improvement .
They don't like to see their mentees doing better than they do.
They pretend to know it all and they are the only ones their mentees will need.
Effective Mentoring
It is important to have a set of rules in mind when being a mentor. These are not rules that every mentor should follow, but they are recommendations I have developed from my personal experience.
1.Training agenda:
Make sure you have a written plan of how the training will go. This is an essential step to avoid ending up in chaos and jumping from a topic to another with no logic.
The agenda of training or mentoring should be made in progressive and chronological way. For example, from basic to complex and most important to less important, including the number of days, hours will be assigned to each topic, as the example below:
Day 1 ,3 hours : topic 1, product learning(basics) + reading documentation
Day 2 ,4 hours: topic 2, product learning(basics)+ exercises
Day 3 ,4 hours: topic 3, product learning (intermediate level)+reading documentation
Day 4 ,5 hours: topic 2 , Recap + practices
Day 4 ,5 hours: topic 2 , Recap + practices
.....
Continue this way, making sure you covered all the topics your mentee will need to know. For each topic, you should have a sub-topics in details which you will go through. Preferably, you should have a presentation or a documentation.
Day 1 ,3 hours :
Product learning (basics) :
- Installing product
- Familiarizing with the product interface.
- Familiarizing with basic commands.
Reading documentation:
- Read user guide from page x to page y .
- Do the example from the User guide page z
...
Don't forget to share this plan with your mentees, it will help them have a better view of they are doing and know what they want to achieve.
2. Communication:
Another important aspect is communication. Communication plays a significant role in mentoring. Your mentees will be always having wonders, questions and feel lost and confused about what to do, how to start or from what to start.
Effective communication is the key to helping your mentees to take the right decision, and follow the correct path.
Effective communication, does not only mean mean answering their questions or asking them if they need help, but should be extended to:
Sharing your thoughts and opinions with them.
Taking a break together and having some no-work-related talks.
Telling them stories and facts about the organization.
Being open to any type of discussion, even if it is personal.
Being a good listener.
Accepting mistakes nicely.
Welcoming any type of question.
Encouraging the mentees if they fail.
Letting your mentees take breaks whenever they need.
3. Putting things in practice:
After some point, it is important to put things in practice. Take some time to do a recap with your mentees to check how they are progressing, let's say at the end of each week. Check if they are in a good rhythm, how much they have learned until that moment. Try to detect points of weakness and the parts that require a review or improvement.
Give your mentees practical exercise based on what they have learned until the moment. Exercise should not be only through direct questions , but also scenarios of problems to solve using the acquired knowledge during the mentoring process.
4. Working on a real case:
After giving your mentees the first case to solve, take a moment to discuss together their perspective and how they will approach the case. Check how they are applying what they have acquired to solve the case, give them hints when you see them going wrong or feeling stuck. Finally, agree on a response that they will be delivering to the customer.
5. Following up:
Finishing the mentoring plan is not the end of it. You should be following up a few weeks on your mentees' performance, helping them on their cases and discussing with them any issues and struggles they have.
When you give your mentees a task to do, check occasionally how it is going. Don't be desperate to have them doing it as soon a possible, instead be a good help. Ask them if they require any help or if they stuck at some point. Avoid putting the gun on their head, saying " do it, or I will pull the trigger!".
Conclusion
Keep in mind that you are the key to the success of your mentees. Usually, mentees feel shy or embarrassed asking a question, thinking that the questions they are asking are stupid or will make them look stupid. A a mentor you need to emphasize that you are welcoming questions regardless if it is basic, or complex, stupid or smart. Because there is no such thing as a stupid question. Questions are natural when learning something new and open the way for progress. They were invented to clarify things.
The more questions you answer for your mentees, the better results you will see.
