Questions for Mentors to Use

Questions

  1. What is God teaching you?
  2. Where are you uncomfortable, in a good way?
  3. How are you using your gifts and talents to help others?
  4. What are the firm principles you’re building your life upon?
  5. What are you afraid of now?
  6. What would a perfect day look like?
  7. What does healthy, constructive conflict look like?
  8. What limits you as a leader?
  9. Are you doing enough self-care to be effective?  (Rest has ROI)
  10. Looking back, how do you connect the dots?
  11. When did you decide you wanted to make a big difference in the world?
  12. Where do you need to seek forgiveness, or forgive others?
  13. How are you guarding your heart and mind against temptation and laziness?
  14. What would you like your family – and/or the people who have seen you at your worst – at your funeral service?
  15. Have you created contingencies for your family – an emergency fund, life insurance, and savings for your elder years?
  16. If you could live healthily to 120, what could you imagine accomplishing?
  17. What’s your learning plan this year?
  18. Can you give me an example of how you’ve taught someone else something in the last week?
  19. Let’s play chess.  If you make that move, what’s likely to happen next, and then how would you respond?
  20. Is this a case of being too hard on yourself?
  21. Is this a case of being too easy on yourself?
  22. Where do you need to improve your self-leadership, so you can better lead others?
  23. That sounds like a problem.  What are you going to do about that?
  24. What adds stress and how do you handle stress?
  25. Tell me a time you were most productive/focused. What was unique about that experience?
  26. What are your strengths/weaknesses at effective public speaking? How can you leverage/improve?
  27. How do you measure success?
  28. Is persistence more/less important than talent? Why?
  29. If you could take a year off, what would you do?
  30. What do you do for others that brings you joy?
  31. How can I help you?

Topic Areas

  1. Communication with other family members (especially spouse)
  2. Teaching and coaching children – toddlers through teenagers
  3. Managing money – debt, savings, investments, insurance
  4. Big decisions – career, expensive items, investments, moving, relationships
  5. Relationship with peers, neighbors, and networks
  6. Good books and resources
  7. Managing projects and teams
  8. How to be persuasive
  9. Current political issues – what are the deeper issues, who benefits
  10. Managing a business or organization
  11. Here’s something I learned this week…
  12. Looking at a situation from a different perspective
  13. The difference between being responsible for, and responsible to
  14. How to listen effectively
  15. Suggestions for difficult conversations
  16. Friendships with other men
  17. The guards to put around your relationships with women other than your wife
  18. Asking for promotions or a raise at work
  19. Your stay vs. leave equation about the current situation
  20. Relationship changes over time (e.g., marriage, parenting)
  21. Being optimistic and realistic when you’re surrounded by negative people
  22. Working effectively with people who have a very different style than you
  23. Self-perception vs. how others perceive you
  24. Making better decisions
  25. Moving forward even in ambiguous situations