Quality #2. Mentors Are Empathetic

Empathy means you understand and share another person's experiences, emotions, and feelings.

Empathy is an important element of being a good mentor. If you don't understand where your mentee is coming from, you won't be nearly as successful in helping them be successful. 

Since mentoring is focused on learning, you need to be aware of and sensitive to your mentee's feelings, without letting those feelings undermine your mentee's learning. If a young innovator becomes discouraged because of failure of his invention, explain to him that failure is part of the learning process and encourage him to try again by revising or altering his invention in ways that make it successful.