42% of WCR-MO members are new members with less than three years of membership.  To grow and improve your local chapter, you have to groom or mentor your successors.  By sharing your knowledge and experience, you insure the long term success of the organization.  Mentoring is an important tool and one of the greatest benefits of WCR membership - it benefits both the mentor and the new member.  This page includes some resources on mentoring and how to create an effective mentoring relationship.

Proteges often seek out their mentor.  The mentoring relationship is reciprocal and benefits both the mentor and protege.  Drastic differences between mentor and protege often make the best match.  Mentors with different skills and backgrounds often provide a refreshing and challenging learning experience.

Before selecting a mentor, clearly define what you want to accomplish in a mentoring relationship such as:

• Improving Sales Skills
  
• Career Growth and Professional Advancement
  
• Balancing Work and Life
  
• Starting a Team
  

In addition, define the reasons why someone would want to mentor you—why they should take the time to invest in your future. Share these at the appropriate time with your prospective mentor as you cultivate the relationship.

You may need several mentors throughout your real estate career. You may have several mentors at one time to help you with different aspects of practice or you may have one primary mentor with others who assist you on a less frequent basis.

Seek a person who is not in a supervisory relationship with you. Seek someone with whom you can have an open and honest dialogue without hesitation. Do not be afraid to ask another REALTOR to be your mentor. If you feel more comfortable, ask them to be a mentor for just one aspect of your practice, such as sales skills or client development.

• For the Mentor
  • Shaping the Future of the Real Estate Profession
    
  • Personal Satisfaction
  • Giving Back to the Profession
  • Reviewing your own Strengths and Weaknesses
  • Learning from your Protégé
• For the Protégé
  • Having a Person to Turn to with Substantive, Procedural, Business or Ethics Questions
    
  • Learning about the Business of Selling Real Estate
  • Increased Productivity and Performance
  • Enhanced Reputation and Professionalism
  • Expanded Network
    
  • Objective Feedback on Skills
  • Increased Career Satisfaction

• SCHEDULING:  Mentor and protege should meet on a regular basis over an agreed upon period of time.  Meetings should be canceled at earliest possible time. 

• CONFIDENTIALITY:  The basis for a good mentoring relationship is trust.  As with any personal relationship, trust must be built over time.  The foundation for building trust is based on open and honest sharing of information - troubles, successes and life experiences.  This exchange of information should remain confidential.

• PREPARATION:  Mentor and protege should come to the meetings prepared with a written agenda. The protege should spend time before the meeting to consider questions he or she may have for the mentor. The mentor may also prepare for topics to be discussed.

• SET GOALS:  It is important to set realistic goals as to what is to be achieved or learned by the mentoring relationship. 

• COMMUNICATION:  Between meetings, keep in regular contact by telephone and/or e-mail.

Discussions between mentors and proteges may focus on general issues related to the real estate profession such as:

• Effective Client Communications
• Professionalism and Ethics
  
• Brokerage Management
  
• Lead Generation
  
• Marketing
  
• Contract Administration
  
• Sales Skills
  
• Professionalism and Ethics
  
• Brokerage Management
  
• Career Enhancement
• Balancing Careers with Family and Personal Lives