Free template
Mentorship Goal Setting Worksheet
A worksheet that turns a vague development wish into a goal a mentoring relationship can actually move. Includes the mentorability test and a midpoint review.
- Time to complete
- 30 minutes for the mentee, 15 minutes reviewed with the mentor
- Use it when
- Session one or two, once the pair has enough context to be specific.
How to use this
The mentee fills in sections 1 to 4 alone, before the session. The pair works through sections 5 and 6 together.
Budget 30 minutes for the solo part. It is harder than it looks, and that difficulty is the point. Most of the value of this worksheet is in discovering that the thing you thought you wanted is not quite the thing you want.
Section 1: The wish
Write the vague version. Do not edit it yet.
What I want: [FREE TEXT, e.g. "I want to be better at communicating with senior stakeholders"]
Everyone starts here. This version is unusable as a goal, and writing it down honestly is the necessary first step.
Section 2: The observable version
Now answer this: if that were true, what would you be doing that you are not doing now? Be concrete enough that someone watching could tell.
What would be different: [FREE TEXT]
Examples of the move from wish to observable:
| Wish | Observable version |
|---|---|
| Be better at communicating with senior stakeholders | Present the quarterly roadmap to the leadership team without my manager in the room |
| Be more strategic | Write the one-page plan for [AREA] and have it accepted without a rewrite |
| Move into management | Run the hiring loop for the next two hires on my team end to end |
| Build my network | Have three people outside my function who would take my call about a problem |
| Get promoted | Meet the four criteria in the [LEVEL] rubric with evidence I could point at |
If you cannot write an observable version, the goal is not yet a goal. Stay in this section until you can.
Section 3: The obstacle
What is currently in the way: [FREE TEXT]
Then classify it:
- Knowledge. I do not know how to do this
- Access. I do not have the opportunity or the room
- Judgement. I can do it but I keep making the wrong call
- Confidence. I can do it and I am not doing it
- Structural. Headcount, budget, or a decision someone else owns
The mentorability test
The first four are things a mentor's experience can move.
The fifth is not. If your obstacle is genuinely structural, mentoring is the wrong tool and a good mentor will tell you so in the first session. That is not a rejection. It means the honest answer to your problem is a conversation with your manager, a business case, or a different job, and someone told you that in week one rather than letting you spend six months finding out.
If you ticked structural, go back to section 1 and find the part of your situation that is not.
Section 4: Evidence and timeline
By [DATE], I will have: [FREE TEXT]
The evidence will be: [FREE TEXT, something that exists in the world: a document, a meeting that happened, a decision, a piece of feedback]
The first step, this month, is: [FREE TEXT]
Set the date inside the program cycle. A goal whose evidence lands after the final session cannot be reviewed, and unreviewed goals are how programs end up unable to report anything.
Section 5: Review with your mentor
Fifteen minutes, together. The mentor's job here is to push on three things and nothing else.
Mentor asks:
- "Is the observable version in section 2 really what you want, or is it the safest thing you could write down?"
- "You classified the obstacle as [X]. Say more about why it is that and not [ADJACENT CATEGORY]."
- "Is the evidence in section 4 something that exists whether or not anyone is feeling generous about you that week?"
Question 3 catches goals whose evidence is somebody else's opinion. "My manager thinks I have improved" is not evidence. "I ran the loop and we hired two people" is.
Then agree together:
Agreed goal for this cycle: [ONE SENTENCE]
How we will know at [END DATE]: [ONE SENTENCE]
Copy both lines into section 1 of your mentoring agreement.
Section 6: The between-session loop
At the end of every session, fill in one row. Two minutes.
| Date | What I said I would do | Did it happen | What I learned |
|---|---|---|---|
| [DATE] | |||
| [DATE] | |||
| [DATE] | |||
| [DATE] | |||
| [DATE] | |||
| [DATE] |
Three consecutive rows where the answer to column three is "no" is a signal, not a failure. It usually means the goal is wrong, the steps are too large, or the obstacle was misclassified back in section 3. Raise it rather than carrying it. That conversation is a better use of a session than the one you had planned.
Midpoint review
At the midpoint, answer these four honestly. Ten minutes.
- Is the goal from section 5 still the right goal? [YES / NO / IT HAS MOVED]
- If it has moved, what is it now? [FREE TEXT]
- What is the evidence that you have moved toward it? [FREE TEXT]
- What would make the second half more useful than the first? [FREE TEXT]
A goal that has moved is not a failed goal. It is usually a sign the relationship is doing its job: you now understand your situation better than you did in month one. Rewrite it, update the agreement, and carry on.
Question 4 is the one that changes behaviour. Whatever the mentee writes, the pair should act on it in the next session rather than filing it.
Close-out
The goal was: [COPIED FROM SECTION 5]
What actually happened: [FREE TEXT]
Complete / partially complete / not complete: [SELECT]
What I would tell someone starting this program: [FREE TEXT]
The last line is worth collecting across every participant. It is the most useful raw material you will get for the next cycle, and it feeds directly into the close-out survey in the mentorship program survey questions template.
Questions about this template
- How do you set goals for a mentoring relationship?
- Start from what would be observably different rather than from what you want to be better at. 'Be a better communicator' cannot be reviewed at the end. 'Present the quarterly roadmap to the leadership team without my manager in the room' can. The test is whether a neutral third party could tell you had done it.
- How many goals should a mentee have?
- One primary goal, and at most one secondary. Pairs that start with four goals finish none of them, because the session time gets divided and no single thread ever builds momentum. A second cycle is the place for the second goal.
- What makes a goal suitable for mentoring?
- The obstacle has to be knowledge, access, judgement, or confidence. Those are things another person's experience can move. If the obstacle is headcount, budget, or a decision someone else owns, mentoring is the wrong intervention and saying so early is a kindness.
- Should mentoring goals be tied to performance reviews?
- No. The moment a mentoring goal feeds a review, the mentee starts managing the relationship rather than using it, and the honesty that makes mentoring work disappears. Keep the two separate and say so explicitly in the mentoring agreement.
Related templates
- First Mentor Meeting Agenda
A 60-minute agenda for a first mentoring session, with the actual questions to ask. Gets a pair from strangers to a working relationship with a next step booked.
- Mentor and Mentee Agreement Template
A one-page agreement pairs sign at kickoff. Sets cadence, confidentiality, scope, and how the relationship ends, so none of it has to be negotiated awkwardly later.
- Mentor Training Checklist
A ten-minute briefing for first-time mentors. Covers the four failure modes, the questions that work, and what to do when the relationship stalls.