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Here's a conundrum that's often seen in the professional world: There are tons of people who have years of experience and want to share their knowledge. And there are tons of people who want to be on the receiving end of this knowledge.
Even with this obvious case of supply and demand, there are often citations where a professional isn't trained as a mentor/teacher to effectively be able to pass on this knowledge, and similarly, there are some folks who haven't gotten a good grasp of how to constructively take feedback.
This sounds like a lot of "yikes" situations, doesn't it?
Don't worry. It's easily solvable — both mentors and mentees can take online courses and listen to podcasts to learn how to, in a sense, become better teachers and students. On that note, let's dig into some popular online courses and podcasts for mentors and mentees.
1. Mentoring Masterclass by Udemy
Mentoring Masterclass by Udemy is one of the top-rated online courses for both mentors and mentees (but more specifically, for the former). You'll typically need around 2.5 hours to complete the entire masterclass, which contains 18 lectures divided into four sections, and you can expect to learn about:
- Key skills for mentorship and how to develop them
- Roles and responsibilities of mentors and mentees
- Applications of mentoring and how to apply them
- Ground rules and myths about mentorship
While the course itself is usually available for $34.99, they're running a discount, which brings the price to $15.99.
Additionally, they also have a 30-day money-back guarantee if you happen to buy the course but, for some reason, don't get the time to complete it.
As far as reviews are concerned, Mentoring Masterclass has a rating of 3.9/5, and many reviewers said they loved that the course was:
- Inclusive of a bunch of easy-to-implement ideas
- Easy to understand
- On-point
- Great localized content
2. Practical Advice for Mentoring by Coaching for Leaders
Coaching for Leaders is a podcast grounded in more than a decade of buildup. While it does have a library of resources and expert insights on how to become a great leader, one episode that particularly stands out from its list is Practical Advice for Mentoring.
This resource is about 40 minutes long and is available on their Coaching for Leaders' direct website as well as on other podcast platforms, such as Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, and Pocketcasts.
For this special, the host, Dave Stachowiak, who has more than 15 years of leadership experience at Dave Carnegie, invites and interviews Kurt Allebach, who's been a team lead for consultants at Microsoft and has tons of years of experience mentoring and coaching team members.
Alongside Kurt's own insights, they also bring up the insights of Stella Cowan (a leadership consultant and author), who was another interviewee on the Coaching for Leaders Podcasts and covered the topic, “How to Start a Mentoring Program."
Coaching for Leaders has a rating of 4.8/5 on Apple Podcasts, and all its interviews are available for free!
3. Being a Good Mentee by LinkedIn
Being a Good Mentee is a popular course on and from LinkedIn that's only under an hour long. Developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI), it covers core topics like:
- How to make cross-gender/diverse mentor-mentee opportunities work
- How to improve your confidence as a mentee
- How to get in touch with a mentor
- How to build your relationships
In total, the course has four sections and four quizzes for each section, respectively. The folks who complete this online course also receive a completion certificate from PMI.
Like Mentoring Masterclass, Being a Good Mentee also has a 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can access the course if you have a LinkedIn Learning membership, or you can buy it for $29.99.
As far as reviews of this course are concerned, it's received a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars, and its teacher, Ellen Ensher, has received a ton of positive feedback.
4. Mentoring 101: The Basics by OpenSesame
Available for only $15.99, Mentoring 101: The Basics is one of the best online courses for someone who's just exploring the avenues and responsibilities of becoming a mentor but doesn't want to invest too much time learning the ins and outs of mentorship.
Since this course is just under 30 minutes, it guarantees that it doesn't take away too much time from your busy schedule and provides you with the basic need-to-knows. The folks who took this course rated it 4.1/5, so that goes to prove it's a worthy investment for personal development and building a positive mentoring experience.
The course itself was developed by Sollah, an employee training company that focuses on providing ample resources to leaders, managers, and supervisors.
P.S.: Mentoring 101: The Basics also contains a quiz at the end to ensure you've listened to the study material.
5. How to Be a Good Mentor and Mentee by The Campus
How to Be a Good Mentor and Mentee is a free episode of a podcast offered by The Campus (a resource by Times Higher Education, which is a digital magazine focused on helping students and teachers alike).
This episode of the podcast brought contributors like Monika Foster, Eve Riskin, Bryan Hanson, Gabrielle Paquette, Lucas Lixinski, and more, all of whom were professors, deans, directors, and heads of departments from universities like Northumbria University, Rhodes University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech, and more.
How this recommendation differs from others in the list is that it's specifically curated for mentors and mentees who operate at an academic level, as opposed to those who operate in the corporate world.
And if you're a mentor at an academic institute, one of the best things you can do for your mentees is become a guide, as opposed to being a leader. That's to say, help them in different avenues of life instead of just directing them (which is a key area where mentorship in the academic setting differs from mentorship in the corporate setting).
For example, we often hear about students being in financial distress and being burned by large student loan amounts, so you can guide them on how to combat private student loans and invest your money such that it sets them up for financial success in the future.
6. Academy by Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership
Finally, if you're truly invested in learning about the principles of mentorship and becoming a better mentor, there's no better resource for you than The Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership.
The Institute offers different avenues for learning, namely:
- IECL Courses (also known as IECL Academy): The IECL Academy offers multiple accredited courses. If you purchase any of them, you automatically subscribe to the academy.
The courses under the academy are usually taught over a time span of three days in their LMS, and you need to register for them based on the time zone you're situated in. Each day, you'll need to allocate about nine diligent hours to learn the ins and outs of mentorship.
Each in-person course costs approximately $3,600 (if you're not a member) or $2,950 as a member.
- IECL Membership: IECL Membership allows mentors to build a network with each other, grow their coaching skills, and inspire others. The membership is available at $280 annually, and most folks who purchase it do so to access a community of subject matter experts, get insights from others, and show their clients they're part of the network.
- Customized Coaching: IECL also offers customized coaching, which you can purchase in the form of individual coaching, organizational coaching, executive coaching, or team coaching. Prices for these haven't been disclosed on their website.
The IECL has a network of faculty and coaches from around the world who'd be teaching you about the ins and outs of mentorship.
7. Together's free mentor and mentee webinars
Are you looking for a free resource? Look no further than Together's webinars and interviews. Watch and learn from experts on how to build a thriving culture of mentorship within your organization.
There's a whole library of free content, but we highly recommend How to Be a Great Mentor/ Mentee. This webinar will showcase how to build effective mentoring relationships so that your mentors and mentees get the most out of their meetings.
Empower your mentorship programs with Together
Truth be told, while all these online courses, podcasts, and events are great resources for teaching users how to become better mentors/mentees, they're not customized based on your employee's requirements, subject matter expertise, and skill level.
So, even if an experienced mentor or mentee purchases hundreds of courses randomly, they still won't be satisfied with the outcome because these courses don't directly speak to them and their problems.
And that's where Together comes in.
At the heart of our business, we believe in pairing the right mentees with the right mentors, so we've developed a customizable platform that just does that (aka, you can match your employees with the right mentors at scale).
Alongside this, you can also check progress reports and capacities, integrate with your favourite apps, and access different opportunities to learn and grow. The goal? Learn how to be the most effective mentor.
