To mentor situations, tell stories

Faced with the question “what should I do?" , tell a personal story instead.

First, sharing a related experience reassures a mentee that they’re not alone. Second, they engage the listener’s brain, helping them focus more completely on what they’re being told rather than their own problems. Third, they let a mentee consider a situation through an abstraction – to enable them to see more objectively and consider different perspectives. A story is a teaching tool but you leave the decisions up to them.