How did you arrive at the concept of a "mentoring mindset" and why is it important?

I've been helping people develop mentoring skills for a long time. I've also provided tools. And, I've observed and thought about why formal and informal mentoring succeeds and why it doesn't. My conclusion is that there is something beyond skills and tools - as important as they are - that makes mentoring work.

For want of a better term, I called it mindset. Then I started to think about what that term really meant. I reflected on what I'd learned over the years from the many mentoring partnerships I'd seen and read about and what participants had shared of their experiences. This led me to develop some beliefs and as I explored them I realized what they were..... values. 

Specifically, I believe that the mentoring mindset is an approach based on five core values: personal courage, being constructive, valuing difference, self-responsibility and dialogue.

This mindset - you might call it a philosophy or principles - guides you when you are mentoring. If you have this mindset, mentoring is easy and natural. You don't need a lot of rules, you make decisions and take actions that are congruent with the values.