From the protégé’s perspective:

Once a mentoring relationship is conceptualized as the delivery of the assistance required by a protégé to achieve a desired transition or necessary transformation, both mentor and protégé can be more clearly identified.  Mentoring is mobilized through a dynamic exchange of resources.  As such, the identity of a mentor for each protégé becomes understood more or less by default as the individual, individuals and/or experiences which actually enable or provide such support for the protégé.  Therefore, from a protégé’s perspective, a larger vision of mentor includes an array of available resources, which might be composed of individuals, goods and assets in combination with expertise, experiences and motivating inspirations.

For a protégé, each successful mentoring relationship is a transforming relationship.  The relationship makes available to the protégé the requisite knowledge, expertise and other support necessary to accomplish an identified objective.  Cumulatively, throughout a lifetime, these particular achievements promote the fulfillment of the protégé’s personal growth potential.  The mentor in each relationship is a source from which required resources are sought and ultimately attained by the protégé.  Therefore, ‘mentor’ and ‘mentoring’ would appear to be substantively defined from the perspective of the protégé and not that of any mentor or any observer.

From the mentor’s perspective:

An individual mentor often does not understand that a protégé may be seeking mentoring help from a variety of sources simultaneously.  As well, any individual mentor may not be the primary source of help.  Further complicating for individual mentors is that often a protégé does not recognize the existence of the mentoring relationship or the substantive contribution of a single mentor until well after the mentoring relationship is over. 

This being so, what benefit does a mentor receive from the mentoring relationship?  Many mentors deliberately engage in mentoring as a means of giving back to society.  As a socially acceptable method, these mentors engage in mentoring as a responsible method of furthering benefits they themselves received, frequently in appreciation for the individuals who provided the assistance.  Mentors may achieve a sense of satisfaction by realizing their own growth transformation from protégé to mentor thereby celebrate a new personal dimension.