If you are a working professional, did you ever consider having a mentor? If you are already having someone to look up to as your mentor you surely would know the positive impact it has made in your professional life but if you are still contemplating about having your own mentor, may be its time you find yourself one.
Having a mentor exclusively for you could be of great help to your career. No matter what stage of your career you are in, whether you are a fresher who has just stepped into the professional world, a junior level employee with barely couple of years of experience, or a tenured, senior level employee, you’ll still benefit largely from having a mentor.
First of all, it is important to understand what the term mentor really means. A mentor is someone who acts as an advisor/a guide and a support person for someone less experienced. Traditionally, the relationship was between an older employee and a younger one for the purpose of career development. However, in the recent past several other types of mentoring have also proven successful including peer mentoring where colleagues mentor each other. Regardless of the type of mentoring relationship, it is aimed at your growth and development.
A mentor will support you, cheer you up, provide constructive feedback, guide you, and help you define and reach your goals. It can be a key relationship in your life and one that has the potential to influence your choices and career trajectory significantly. Primarily, you may wonder where and how you can find the right mentor and then how to make this work for you so that you derive maximum value out of this arrangement.
How to choose a mentor?
It is worth considering the below points when you decide to go for a mentor:
Trust is vital: Your mentoring meetings should be a safe place where you can be honest about the challenges you are facing. You need to know you can trust your mentor so that you can be open about the things that concern you, while knowing that your conversations are confidential. This is number one for a reason: consider it the foundation of a good mentoring relationship.
Look for someone who inspires you: A mentor should be someone whose advice and talent you respect. Even if they are not a direct role model, they should be someone who inspires you to be better, and demonstrates the kind of skills and behaviours you look up to.
Give yourself options: Commitment is essential to a good mentoring relationship, but that doesn’t mean you’re locked into the first person you approach. Try meeting with a number of people to find out if you connect, especially if you don’t have much of a relationship with them already. The way you interact personally will be as important as their experiences in making the relationship work, so give yourself options, and don’t be afraid to be honest if it isn’t working.
Mentorship can play a crucial role in building a successful career. Here are a few ways that mentoring could help you in your career
By giving you the chance to work with a role model
If you feel that you know the kind of role you’re looking for, then having a mentor who’s either already in or who’s been in that position before could be really useful to helping you get there. A role model mentor could also be a great way to get specific support on a more short-term basis, such as a project which stretches your skills, or the transition to a new job.
By helping you to understand and focus on what it is you want
A good mentor will have your best interests in mind, and will help you to reflect on what you’re good at and the kind of work you enjoy. They can also help you make a plan to get more of the things you enjoy into your working life, give you the confidence to make changes, and help keep you on track.
By letting you benefit from someone else’s mistakes and successes
We all know the importance of learning from mistakes, but what if those mistakes don’t have to be your own? You could save yourself a lot of time and pain. Your mentor will give you the benefit of their experiences when they’ve faced up to similar challenges, sharing what worked and what didn’t. More importantly they’re likely to have reflected on why they got the outcome they did, and rather than simply giving you a formula to follow, they can make suggestions about what you should consider when you plan your own approach.
By holding you accountable
There’s no easier promise to break than the ones we make to ourselves – just look at the history of broken New Year resolutions for proof. Make those commitments to somebody else though, and the incentive to follow through on what you say you’ll do becomes a lot greater.
By giving you both positive and critical feedback
Good mentors appreciate you when you do something really good and also they give you critical feedback when necessary so that you can work on yourself and improve.
Having a good mentor exclusively for you can make a lot of difference in your professional journey. Therefore, if you still do not have a mentor it may be time to find one and thrive in your career.