Begin the conversation by thanking your mentor for his or her time and efforts. Talk about all the highlights of the mentorship, such as meeting or exceeding goals. Give your mentor a compliment about his or her mentoring style, such as always making time for you, having great strategic ideas or speaking with candidness.

Communicate your reason for ending things

exactly why you are ending the relationship. For mentees who have accomplished their goals early, this will be an easy task. Mentees who are ending their relationships because of a poor personality fit, lack of communication or other problems may find it difficult to tell their mentors the truth. But this can be done in a diplomatic manner. For example, if you are ending things because your mentor is never available, you could say, "I'm afraid our schedules are just not compatible, though the time we've spent together has been very valuable to me." If you are ending things because your personality is not a fit with your mentor's, you could say, "I've had time to reflect on my own communication style, and I think I need a mentor who has a similar approach."

Give your mentor honest feedback

Just because the mentorship didn't work out doesn't mean your mentor is "bad" or can't improve. Give honest feedback, so that your mentor can be better in the future. Mention the advice that helped you the most, and diplomatically suggest areas where the mentor could have been more helpful. For example, if your mentor only gave negative criticism, you could say, "I know that novice questions must be irritating to someone so advanced in our field. Maybe you could come up with a list of commonly asked beginner questions and answers for your next mentee so you don't have to keep answering the same things over and over."