Chapter 2: Mentoring for Wellbeing Through Inquiry

This chapter illustrates by how inquiring conversations between a mentor and a mentee can result in profound promotion of mentee wellbeing. Beginning with the authors’ reflections on their own experiences with inquiring mentors, they, then, introduce Socratic and maieutic approaches to mentoring. A heuristic for thinking about wholistic mentorship inquiry is introduced with a four-fold way of giving attention to mentee identity, discernment, exploration and task engagement. Finally, the chapter offers 20 types of inquiry questions that mentors might use to create opportunities for mentees to give attention to the various dimensions of their personal, interpersonal and workplace practices and promote wellbeing.