How can we better mentor our junior personnel?

You really need to connect with your juniors on a personal level. When you do this they really start listening and paying attention. They finally feel like you give a crap about them and their career. Once you are connecting with on a personal level you finally see what their goals truly are and the root of their struggles. Once you know this you can really tailor how you mentor that certain member.

Senior leadership must set aside meaningful time to mentor by deed and actions with and beside Senior NCO and junior officers.

Getting to know your troops and mentoring often times go hand in hand. I genuinely cared for the Airmen that worked for me, personally and professionally. One easy way I did this when I was at Spangdahlem was that I went to lunch with several NCOs every week at the German Kantine on base. It was pretty much an open invite and a standing appointment and it was a great way to just find out what was going on with them, their troops, and often times, the flight itself. It was a good time to hear what could be improved and to pass down info on what was going on with the unit and some things that needed to be fixed. Organized mentoring sessions didn't seem to work for my Airmen but an open door policy did, even if it was just to shoot the breeze sometimes. I think often times, leaders keep things too formal and stuffy and don't let their troops get comfortable enough to seek advice.

Just as every person is different. Every method for teaching someone on how to be a Mentor will be different. It will work best if the method suits the individual being mentored. This is where the Mentor must have good working knowledge of the person they are taking in under their wing. While it will have a flair that is unique to the Mentor, I really do feel it needs to be tailored to the individual being mentored.

We would have better leaders if we didn't involuntary separate them. Instead we are left with more managers than leaders. "PEOPLE are our greatest asset", its written in our PDG. The disconnection starts there. I've seen to many great mentors leave, and not by choice.

Quit lying to them sir. Ive seen it many a time when my leaders lied directly to my face. My XO at Iwakuini lied to the whole squadron during Muster. Main reason I didnt reenlist. Cant trust or follow a liar.

How to "better" mentor someone? There is no way to answer that -- some are not being mentored at all, while other are getting some of the finest mentoring possible, and then there is the vast majority somewhere between those extremes.

How to *best* mentor someone is answerable, and the requirements are simple: *you* have to *believe* that they can do things well, you have to show them how to do things well, and you have to inspire them to *want* to do things well. A failure on any of those three points means a wasted effort, and subordinates (or peers) who won't be all that they can be either because they don't know how they just don't care, or they have no hope of being more than they are already.

First, members must be excited to come to work. There must be an enjoyment daily.
Mentors must do their homework.
Care about People. Build juniors up.
We must stop using discouraging words.
Prepare self.
Encourage the unknown.
Be tough but, fair.
Initiate the 4 P's
Practice
Placing
Proper
Praise
Have fun and be the example. Great leaders make it look easy.