Working with a mentor is an excellent way to accelerate your career. The relationship can help you gain new skills and prepare you to take on that next big assignment. Finding a mentor and working productively with that person is a key to career success.

I had some extraordinary mentors early in my career, and they accelerated my success in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Now I enjoy helping up-and-coming professionals build their careers. Still, not every mentor-mentee relationship works. A mentor may not be right for the role, or a mentee may not pursue the relationship successfully.

There are ground rules every mentee should practice if the relationship is to succeed. Here are five of the most important ones:

Obviously, the first step is choosing an appropriate mentor. To do this, you’ll need to decide on the skills or area where you want to progress and find someone who can give you that specific support.

If you want to progress in a technical area, select a mentor who is known for their skills in that field. Or if you want to be a better communicator, choose someone with those skills. If you want to........

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