I have been mentoring a colleague for about 8 months, at the request of management. She showed initial improvement but has plateaued and we will soon be having a "reset" meeting to assess the mentoring relationship and set new goals.
One area where we've made little to no progress is her professionalism. Specifically, she has trouble separating her personal relationships and personal demeanor from her work relationships and an appropriate work demeanor. HR is in the loop, and I am working closely with them. My mentoring is part of their plan to course-correct and address these issues.
In our upcoming reset meeting, I want to highlight professionalism as a key area for us to work on, but given her tendency to view constructive feedback as a personal attack or betrayal, I am worried about how to politely address it. Are there nicer words I can use?
Edit:
Examples were left out to be brief, but happy to elaborate. She has a tendency to gossip, to over-share and ask prying questions, and to question whether her tasks are "her job."Her business writing skills could also use work, but I think that will just take some time and a certain pride in her work that is lacking right now. Most of the time she delivers on the tasks she is given, but often her supervisors do not entrust her with work that someone else at her same level would normally be given.
Gossip: She has intimated to me that some colleagues were having an affair. I told her I had no wish to speculate on it and shut the conversation down, but I doubt I am the only person she said that to.
Over-sharing: giving extraneous details about her time management, health, personal life, etc in office-wide emails. Things that might be okay to share in a one on one conversation with someone you have a close working relationship with, but not 120 people over email. Like "I'm exhausted and my back still hurts so i need to go to the doctor." Etc.