Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring

TEN

Coming to Closure

During this fourth phase of the mentoring cycle, you and your mentoring partner take stock of what you learned and make a plan for the future. Coming to closure is more than a quick handshake. Ellen Goodman, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, tackled difficult conversations in founding The Conversation Project to respect people’s end-of-life wishes. She offers the following wisdom on the topic of closure: “There’s a trick to the ‘graceful exit,’” she says. “It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over—and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an ...