Teachable moments abound, and the mentee’s level of vulnerability determines the mentee’s teachability. The mentee must be willing to learn through formal and informal lessons.  You and the mentee should identify learning opportunities from which the mentee can glean meaningful insights and then implement the lessons learned in a way that produces tangible results.

Let the mentee know that the first step to establishing an effective mentoring relationship is for the mentee to slowly expose his or her weaknesses to enable you to focus your efforts on better equipping the mentee for independence and success.  In other words, the mentee’s guard has to come down to enable the mentee to be re-built – better and stronger.  There are five reasons why vulnerability or brokenness is essential.