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Film-style poster for the Best Possible Self for Mentors presentation

A guide for mentors: Best Possible Self for Mentors

How to send Best Possible Self, read the writing and turn it into steps.

English

What this guide covers

What this guide covers

What this guide covers

What it is

Fifteen minutes about a future that worked

Your mentee writes about life after things went as well as they could.

When to send it

Send it when the future feels vague

It helps before a big choice, or when weeks blur into each other.

  • A crossroads a role, a field, a move
  • Weeks that blur busy, with no direction
  • Before goals to see what the goals serve

An honest frame

A modest lift, honestly told

The gains in studies are small to moderate, so treat it as a start.

29 Studies in one review found small to moderate gains in optimism and well-being Carrillo and others, 2019
3 weeks Later, students who wrote about their best future felt better King, 2001

Sending it

Send it from your pairing

It takes a minute, and your mentee gets an email.

Open your pairing

Choose Assign a tool and find Best Possible Self.

Try it as your mentee

Write for two minutes yourself; nothing is saved or sent.

Add a short message

Suggest a quiet moment; the timer runs for fifteen minutes.

Open your pairing

Choose Assign a tool and find Best Possible Self.

Try it as your mentee

Write for two minutes yourself; nothing is saved or sent.

Add a short message

Suggest a quiet moment; the timer runs for fifteen minutes.

Reading the answers

Read for detail and warmth

Look at what they wrote about with the most detail and feeling.

  • Time frame one, three or five years
  • Where the detail is the parts they wrote most about
  • The steps up to three, things to start this month

Questions to ask

Ask what surprised them first

People who ask follow-up questions are liked more (Huang and others, 2017).

  • What in your writing surprised you? then: what did you expect to write?
  • Which part of that future has already started? then: what got it going?
  • What stands in the way of the first step? then: how could it be smaller?

Feedback that helps

Do not edit the dream

Reflect their words back before you add your own view.

1 in 3 Over a third of feedback effects lowered performance in one large review Kluger and DeNisi, 1996

One step

Pick one step for this month

Choose one of their steps and agree on a day to start.

  • From their list not a step you suggest
  • Small it fits in one week
  • Dated a day, not someday

After the meeting

Keep it all on Mentornity

The answers, your comments and the next steps stay in one place.

Read it at a glance

The time frame, words written and steps are summed up.

Add next steps

Write what will be done, by whom and by when.

Ask to fill it again

Earlier writing is kept, so you can read both futures.

Read it at a glance

The time frame, words written and steps are summed up.

Add next steps

Write what will be done, by whom and by when.

Ask to fill it again

Earlier writing is kept, so you can read both futures.

Send it before a crossroads

Choose a mentee facing a big choice and give them fifteen quiet minutes.

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