In my experience people are afraid to screw up the mentorship even when I always tell them that it is actually difficult to do so. If you think mentoring is mysterious and difficult, it will be. There are no rules, except to always stay in full-attention listening mode. Sometime you teach, sometimes you mentor and sometimes just talk or spend time together.
About the only time to screw the mentorship up is
- Don´t meet often
- When you meet, don´t listen
- Don´t keep your promises
That will do it!
Any additional thing you may do, even the clumsiest effort that keeps your mentee´s best interests squarely in focus will spell sucess. If you are in a mentoring program there will always be a coordinator who will help you if you feel that you need it.