Activity: Expressing Communication Needs and Expectations

Communication is key in order to establish a mutual understanding of how the mentorship will function. Each individual may have different ways of communicating their needs. Use the chart below as a guide to reach mutual understandings for how the pair will communicate during the mentoring project.

Purpose

This activity will reveal similarities and differences in communication styles and preferences between the mentoring pair. It will encourage collaboration to promote mutual understandings of how the pair will communicate with one another throughout the project.

Time

40 minutes (10 minutes for the Mentee to reflect individually, 10 minutes for the Mentor to reflect individually, and 20 minutes for comparing as a team)

Materials

Table: Expressing Communication Needs and Expectations, writing utensil

Who

Mentor & Mentee

What

The mentee will fill in the “Personal Preferences” column of the table in the rows labeled “Mentee” with how they prefer to handle the different types of communication.
The mentor will then fill in the “Personal Preferences” column of the table in the rows labeled “Mentor” with how they prefer to handle the different types of communication.
Next, the pair will come together to compare their personal preferences. What answers are similar? What answers are different?
The pair will then fill out the “Pair Expectations” column together. This will guide how they will approach each type of communication in their partnership. The pair should use their personal preferences and their conversation in step 3 as a guide to come up with these expectations.

Tips

The sections entitled “Other” are available as spaces in which communication topics that are not listed but are important to the participants can be articulated.