All You Need is “Deep Level” Similarity

Anyone who has run a mentoring program has, at some point, confronted the question of “the match.” Or, to put it another way, how important is it to match people based on various demographic qualities? In this post in The Chronicle of Evidence Based Mentoring, editor Jean Rhodes shares recent research that confirms what previous studies have argued: “sharing demographic characteristics like gender, race or ethnicity with one’s mentor was not associated with high quality mentoring relationships, as reported by the mentees. Instead, the single strongest predictor was the mentees’ sense of deep-level similarity – their perception of sharing outlooks, values and beliefs with their mentors.”

Of course, demographic variables sometimes are important. But the most important quality for successful mentoring is always the pair that is willing to show up and do the work with each other.