1. Active listening

Active listening is the ability to engage fully with what others are saying, and it’s one of the most important mentorship skills. Individuals with strong active listening skills stay focused on others as they speak and respond in a relevant manner, which can help mentors offer more effective guidance and help those they’re training to feel valued.

How to hire for active listening

Let candidates know you’re looking for applicants with active listening by:

• Listing verbal communication and listening skills on your job posting to foster positive mentee/mentor relationships

• Including questions relevant to active listening on job applications, such as how they receive and respond to feedback

• Describing job duties that require listening skills, such as communicating with customers and training other employees

Assessing active listening

Assess active listening skills during interview processes. Pay attention to how well each candidate listens to others and how they respond. An active listener typically responds in a relevant manner. For instance, they may listen to an example from an interviewer and tailor their answer to future questions with that information in mind.

A person’s active listening skills may be most apparent when it’s their turn to ask questions during an interview. They’re more likely to ask clarifying questions about previous information than to ask questions that have already been answered.

Roles where active listening excels

• Supervisor: Active listening skills can help supervisors appropriately respond to each team member, helping employees feel heard and valued.

• Counselor: Counselors and other mental health professionals need active listening skills to best support their patients.

• Customer success manager: Customer service employees must be able to listen to and respond to customer needs quickly and accurately.

2. Goal-setting

Strong goal-setting skills help employees create measurable and relevant objectives, promoting direction and success for teams and organizations. This skill is important for mentors, who typically help others develop strategies to meet their goals.

How to hire for goal-setting skills

If you want to attract applicants with goal-setting skills, consider:

• Including goal-setting, SMART goals and other relevant terms in your job posting

• Listing job duties relevant to goal-setting, such as strategic planning

• Requiring candidates to have previous goal-setting experience

Assessing goal setting

Learn more about a person’s goal-setting skills by talking about past performance and professional experience. Ask a candidate to talk about a time they had to set goals, how they chose those goals and what the outcome was. This helps you understand if a candidate can consider information and make appropriate decisions to achieve goals.

You might also engage in some brief role-playing. Set up a hypothetical situation and ask questions about how the person might set goals given certain business needs.

Roles where goal-setting skills excel

• Chief executive officer (CEO): Executive leaders must be able to engage in strategic planning , setting goals for an entire organization that can cascade down to each level appropriately.

• Coach: Business, sports and life coaches help others set and work toward goals, making goal-setting skills critical.

3. Inspiring others

Inspiring others is a crucial mentoring skill for leaders, as they can use this skill to communicate organizational visions and help motivate teams to reach goals. When team members can inspire others, it can improve morale and increase collaboration.

How to hire for inspirational skills

To hire for inspirational skills, you can include key phrases in your job listing, such as:

• Motivating others

• Team leadership

• Inspiring others toward goals

Assessing inspirational ability

Assess the candidate’s inspirational skills as you talk to them in an interview. Ask yourself how you feel about what they say and whether they speak in a way that excites you. Are they inspiring you to hire them? If not, that might say a lot about their inspirational skills.

You might also ask them to talk about how they’ve inspired others in the past and follow up with questions about how those skills might apply to your position.

Roles where inspirational skills excel

• Event coordinator: Event planners and coordinators may need to inspire venue staff or others to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time or overcome challenges to ensure the show goes on.

• Teacher: Teachers often work to inspire students to meet goals, grow and learn.

4. Cultural competency

Cultural competency skills help someone understand, respect and respond to the culture of others. This skill is critical when your team members need to work with people from diverse backgrounds.

Successful mentorship requires inclusivity and tailored approaches, which can be enhanced by cultural awareness.

How to hire for cultural competency

Let candidates know you want to hire someone with strong cultural competency by:

• Including cultural competency as a keyword in your job description

• Writing about the diversity, equity and inclusion ( DEI ) requirements of the position and describing how your organization supports DEI initiatives

• Listing a preference for experience with working with others in different locations or from different backgrounds

Assessing cultural competency

Asking questions about cultural competency is a great way to assess this skill. Consider including some role-playing in interviews when appropriate, creating hypothetical situations that might require cultural competency to deal with. Ask the candidate to discuss how they might approach the situation.

You can also ask whether a candidate has successfully worked in an environment with others of varied backgrounds.

Roles where cultural competency excels

• Human resources manager: Human resource employees must support a wide range of individuals and understand how cultural differences may impact teams.

• Director of sales: Leaders in sales need cultural competence to help support their teams, as any leaders do. However, they also need these skills to help them interact successfully with a wide variety of customers.

5. Coaching

Coaching skills allow someone to provide guidance and education to others who are developing skills or working toward goals. Coaching is a critical skill for leaders and those responsible for training and mentoring.

How to hire for coaching

When you want to hire someone with coaching skills, communicate this preference in your job postings. You can do this by:

• Including relevant keywords, such as coaching, mentoring and leadership skills

• Listing job duties relevant to the skill, such as coaching underachievers to meet goals

• Providing expectations for success for the position, such as the need to lead teams to overcome challenges

Assessing coaching skills

To understand whether a candidate has strong coaching skills, you might ask if they’ve ever led a team or another individual to success or how they motivate others. Another option is to create a hypothetical situation about a team that’s struggling to meet a goal or overcome a challenge and ask the individual what three things they would do to help coach that group to success.

Roles where coaching skills excel

• Nutritionist: Nutritionists and dietitians may work with individuals who are dealing with eating disorders, medical conditions or weight issues, providing education and coaching to help them meet goals and overcome those challenges.

• Tutor: Tutors coach students to succeed in various academic subjects, using their skills to help motivate them to tackle challenging subjects.