Jin Sol Kim

HTM480
Professor Mark Testa
May 7th, 2015
Mentoring Experience Reflection
Before pairing mentor and mentee, I emailed professor Testa to have my mentee as an
international student and I still remember my relief and excitement when I found out that my
mentee is from another country. I believed that I would be more helpful to other HTM
international students because Ive had faced similar difficulties with English and life situations
as an international students. That was the reason behind it.
Tran Dinh, she was my 301 mentee and her emphasis is hotel management which is
different from my emphasis, events and meetings. Throughout the semester we had four face-toface meeting and consistently exchanged text messages at least once a week to see how
individuals were doing with school, work, and goals we set. We met for 10 minutes to introduce
ourselves to each other at the first quick meeting at school. We basically told how we ended up
with HTM major, what future career path we would like to take, what classes we are taking, and
past work experiences in the hospitality industry. In March, we met at school for another quick
meeting to catch up how we are doing with classes and everything. During the second meeting, I
was not able to have a serious and adequate talk with Tran because we were too busy at that
moment and I still regret not allowing enough time to develop the relationship during the second
meeting. I felt we were still not open to each other after the meeting so I asked Tran if she would
like to meet up outside of school, so we met outside of school to have a cup of milk tea with indepth conversation which allowed us to build more genuine and honest relationship. At the end

of semester, we had our last face-to-face meeting at school to see our progress and reviewed our
mentee-mentor experience with some feedback. Due to busy schedule on both end, our main
communication tool was done through text message and it worked out perfectly for both of us. If
I feel like I have not been communicating with her, I would text her right away by asking how
her day is going and if she has any question, she would text me right away in the same manner.
We both felt that text message helped us to be in touch and stay updated.
Throughout the entire class of HTM480, we were given to explore our leadership
philosophy and go in depth with coaching cycle and the mentor experience was perfect practice
for me to practice coaching cycle outside of the class. First step of the cycle, Create a Shared
Vision, it was the very first step I and mentee took. We met and discussed what we want to
achieve through this mentor program. Tran did not fully understand what mentor experience was
at first so she wasnt willing to set the goal or meet additional times. After we touched the base
of this mentor experience, she finally realized the objective and goal of the project and put an
effort in scheduling a meeting and responding promptly via text message. Ironically, not like
other leadership project Ive done in HTM480, this first step of the cycle was the hardest and
longest part for me to attain. During the second meeting, we both agreed on what kind of person
we want to become by the end of the semester. At that time, Tran was facing a difficulty with
finding an internship for her to have first step into the industry and have an opportunity to
research more about the hotel operation, therefore, we set a goal focusing on her journey with
finding an internship and become knowledgeable about the industry! Along with it, I also set my
goal for myself; become a mentor for the first time of my life and try my best in providing
assistance as much as I can! The second step of the cycle, Developing Service Climate, was
followed as soon as we finished setting a goal. In order to develop it, knowing individuals

perception of this project, the goal, and ourselves was the key to complete this step so I asked
several questions about what she and I think about this project, what kind hardship she finds
toward the goal, and also what is the status of ourselves including personal and school life.
Answering these questions all led to the reflection of the current mood and image of self. I could
see that Tran did not show confidence in her ability and capability and had unfavorable attitude
on mentor experience, so I decide to spend extra time and show my care on those part. I also try
to be clear about the fact that I want to help her out not just for the class credit, but also as a
friend and mentor. Third step, Develop Relationship, took a place all the way of mentor program.
This project is all about how you develop a relationship and how both parties helps each other in
personal and professional growth with care, and trust. Fourth step, Teach and Train for service
quality, played a role entire time as well. I used 4 steps training which are preparation,
demonstration, tryout, and evaluate. When Tran told me that applying to open positions at the
hotel isnt easy, I reflected on my previous experience and told her my story of approaching
Christina Jeffries for assistance such as forwarding resume to HR department after application
submission. So Tran tried it out, even though she did not get that position, but still she is using
this method because she found out the value in it. Next step, Motivate and Inspire, seemed easy
to me but it was not because it was long term project and consistency in trying out and being
patient was not easy for both of us. We have tried same things, talked about it, and brainstormed
the areas she can improve, but it was time consuming and dragging since no positive outcome
was observed. One time she told me that we shouldnt meet and just keep in touch with text
message only and I refused to follow her suggestion just because I did not want to end a
relationship without any achievement. So I convinced her that the result of our effort will be
appearing and dont expect things to be done shortly. I told another story of mine on searching

for an internship for more than 2 months and gave some ideas on what she can try as an
alternative. Maintaining a positive attitude toward our goal and emphasizing continuous effort to
the mentee were the main ideas I applied during this step. Assess the performance was crystal
clear because it was easily observed with outcome, finding an internship and better
understanding of the industry. Ive shared my previous industry and association related
experienced in order to give her an idea of what area she may be interested in and what steps she
can take in the career. Even though she is still in the process of internship search, she is doing her
best and it is amazing how she developed her consistency and patience on this. It is clear to see
the development in her personal and professional characteristics. The last step, Providing
feedback, applied to both of us. We exchanged our opinion on how this mentor program
benefited us and what we have done throughout the semester. She expressed her appreciation
towards my support and valuable relationship as a friend and as a mentor-mentee. I also gave
what I found out about her and several strengths I noticed in her. Literally every steps in
coaching cycle took stages during this project and I was able to practice each step.
I still remember my lovely mentor from HTM480 when I was in HTM301 class and
through this mentoring experience I wanted to provide similar experience to my mentee. In the
beginning, I was little worried about not having same emphasis because I did not feel like I can
help her out with my limited knowledge of hotel management. However, it was my
misconception and my personal and professional experiences/stories found a value through this
project. There were few takeaways from the experience and one of them is staying positive and
being patient. Our relationship almost was in unstable status when Tran asked if we can just
continue this project through text message without face-to-face meeting. Im a person who
believes the true value in face-to-face meeting and I was depressed when she brought it out. I

thought I tried my best in providing support for her classes and job hunting, but she seemed like
she did not appreciate it and just take it as granted. At that point, I thought my entire effort on
this project was meaningless because it never got delivered to her at all! My way of showing care
and support didnt seem important to her and I tried my best to stay positive and keep trying to
make this relationship work. I texted her I would like to meet with you in person and get to
know more about you and be honest about it. Eventually we both agreed on meeting in person
and we are still remaining as good friends but staying positive and being patient truly shined out
in this situation. I also thought that both people have to work TOGETHER because its two way
communication and not a teaching session. Only one party communicating and other party not
participating, that is one way communication and relationship does not work that way. Along
with this point, I felt that 1:1 relationship can be more challenging and demanding than 1:many
relationship because you have to be personal all the time. If you deal with a group of people,
there is a nature of mob psychology, however, if you are mentoring and coaching one person
only, you need to be more personal and striving towards the other because your attitude is clearly
visible in 1:1 relationship. If my leadership was positioned in this situation, what would I have
done in the industry situation? I still havent found a good answer for this but I would be more
personal, and individualized feedback and maintain encouragement and support by expressing
my true support toward the other. Last but not least, assessing the performance was little
sensitive to both of us because we did half achieved and half unachieved yet. Tran still hasnt
found an internship and we have set it as one of our goals. I would say this will be our ongoing
goal in process and even this project ends, I will still keep in touch with her in finding her
internship because I have observed her effort and countless fantastic characteristics of her.

Seeing the outcome is not always easy or quick to observe and I learned the value of waiting for
the outcome and now I see myself enjoying this journey!
In my leadership experience, I noticed my strength in Y style leadership and this
experience also brought me a positive view on this leadership style. On the other hand, I also
noticed my weakness in being directive and straightforward so I tried to work on this leadership
style. Balancing between two different leadership styles gave me hard time at first, but it was
totally worth trying and good experiment for myself. For example, Tran was not willing to
participate in this mentor-mentee project in the beginning and she was passive in the relationship,
which ended up with giving me some challenge, and I decide to be straightforward about this
rather than following her ideas. I told her what things I want to achieve WITH her while
emphasizing that the benefits will be not just for myself but for both of us, in a clear way of
saying directly to her so that way she can see my point right away. Fortunately she listened and
agreed on my points. I was able to practice being straightforward to others at this time and I felt
comfortable and better than before. Another weakness area I noticed from the past experience
was that I need to think carefully in others side and plan accordingly. Therefore, I tried my best
to think and act in her shoes rather than just mentoring her based on my experiences and stories.
What would I do if I was Tran when she felt she is not worthy and no company likes to hire
her?, and this was one of the hardest question I have to think carefully because the result can be
emotional and difficult. I came up with an idea of the strength of telling the difficulty to someone
and asked her to talk to me anytime when she feels like to talk and go over what she did. So I
waited patiently and finally she texted me that she applied but got a message that the company
didnt select her and she feels discouraged. I empathized and talked about the emotions she may
go through and told how I over come it. By telling your difficulty to someone can ease your

burden, and as a leader we need to be able to listen and empathize. In this way, others will
become emotionally attached to you and feel that you care for them! I truly saw the power of this
and texting each other for 10 minutes with positive words and giving some companies to look for
gave us a good time to chat and feel less pressured from the reality.
What is leadership? This is the question I asked to myself and I knew I have potential in
leadership with myself and did not have consistent desire to practice the leadership style I have.
However, not like other leadership experience, I really enjoyed and emotionally attached to this
project because I put so much effort into it and I see myself as a leader and mentor in some way
now. I didnt see any characteristics in myself as a mentor before, but I realized that anyone can
become a good mentor and there is no minimum requirement to qualify for it. Be patient. Have
passion towards what you are doing for them. Believe in the power of relationship. Enjoy the
atmosphere of sharing your experiences and stories with others and enlarge your world! Those
were the key lessons I learned and I do really enjoy applying them in my life and in my mentor
experience with Tran. Ive mentioned consistency over times in this reflection and as a proof of
it, we promised to keep in touch with each other and stay as a good friend and good mentormentee. If she has any question, she has someone to call or text and if I have any question, it
works same for me. Mentoring was not just an activity in guiding and assisting Tran, but also
itself mentored myself as to develop my philosophy in relationship, mentoring, and leadership.