Last night TechStars Atlanta announced their 2016 class. As part of the event, they invited all the mentors and passed out The Mentor Manifesto:
- Be socratic
- Expect nothing in return (you’ll be delighted with what you get).
- Be authentic and practice what you preach.
- Be direct. Tell the truth, however hard.
- Listen, too.
- The best mentor relationships eventually become two-way.
- Be responsive.
- Adopt at least one company every single year.
- Clearly separate opinion from fact.
- Hold information in confidence.
- Clearly commit to mentor or do not. Either is fine.
- “I don’t know” is preferable to bravado.
- Guide, don’t control. Teams must make their own decisions.
- Accept and communicate with other mentors.
- Be optimistic.
- Provide specific actionable advice, don’t be vague.
- Be challenging and robust but never destructive.
- Have empathy. Remember that startups are hard.
Thanks to @lance for tweeting this out.