Ever wondered what some benefits of having a mentor are?
Maybe you are struggling in your career and want to move forward?
Maybe you like to learn how to head a team, improve your leadership skills, and help others learn, grow, and improve their skills?
You know that it is possible by having a mentor.
The mentors have the power to take you by hand and walk you through the most challenging situation in life. They incorporate their years of experience and expertise in their coaching.
All successful people in the world had a mentor, multiple mentors.
Bill Gates has Warren Buffet, and Warren Buffet had Benjamin Graham. Mark Zuckerberg had Steve Jobs. Alexander the Great had Aristotle.
Mentors can speed up your journey, whatever you are embarking upon by guiding you.
Great people had multiple mentors for different areas of life.
People are recognizing the importance of having a mentor and are actively pursuing it.
This mentor/mentee relationship is beneficial both, personally and professionally.
Having a mentor is an opportunity to improve communication skills, expand your thinking horizon, and consider new ways of approaching situations.
And both mentor and mentee can advance their careers in this process.
In this post, I’ll be discussing what mentoring is, why it is necessary to seek out one actively, and how this partnership can be beneficial to both.
What Is Mentoring?
Mentoring is a relationship between two people to develop professionally and personally. The experienced individual is known as the “mentor.”
He/she shares his knowledge, experience, and advice with the student, a lesser experienced person, or “mentee.”
Mentors have trusted advisors and role models. They are the people who have “been there” and “done that.” They also share the same values.
They offer suggestions and knowledge, both general and specific, to their mentees, thus support and encourage them.
A mentoring partnership can be between two people within the same company, the same industry, or the same networking organization. The goal of a mentoring partnership is to offer personal and professional advantages for both parties.
Mentoring and Other Professional Relationships
You might be thinking about other terms like coaches, trainers, and consultants. What are these for? Or what do they do?
Let’s dig a bit more into some similarities and differences between mentoring and the professions mentioned above.
Coaches and mentors differ in a couple of ways.
First, a coach is generally paid, whereas mentors will usually help you out voluntarily. You will find coaches to be there for you on your coaching sessions while mentors are hard to find and may struggle with keeping pace with your mentoring appointments.
Coaches help you establish where you are in your career, where you want to head, and will lay out a plan to reach there. They will help you take action as well.
Coaches tend to guide you in sketching out your plan; mentors suggest several paths you might take using their knowledge and experience.
Now you might have come across the term trainer as well. Trainers help learn and develop specific skill sets. While you can choose the training course according to your needs as closely as possible, training courses by their type have their agendas and timeline.
However, mentoring is customized to your needs. Mentoring can help you develop personal qualities and competencies.
Then come career consultants or career counselors. They help you transition between jobs or roles, and the relationship is a paid one.
Mentoring Partnership: Benefits to the Mentor
First, discuss what benefits a mentoring partnership brings the mentor and enrich his personal and professional life.
Development of Leadership Skills
Mentoring someone develops your ability to motivate and encourage others.
This is advantageous as it helps the mentor become a better manager, employee, and team member. These aren’t skills that you necessarily learn if you choose to go to college.
Improvement of communication skills
The more you explain a specific topic to others, the better you become at delivering it. Becoming a mentor is thus a way to groom your communication skills in your area of expertise.
The more you practice these skills with mentees, the better you become at mentoring others, and the more chance you will be able to bring in your mentee’s life.
Help you learn new perspectives.
Everyone comes from a different background, has another way of thinking, and a different story to share. When you work with someone less experienced with a diverse background than yours, you will gain a fresh perspective on things, and will learn a new way of thinking.
It helps you advance your career.
When you polish your leadership and communication skills, you automatically improve your on job or in-business performance. This can open the doors of promotions to you.
In today’s business world, showing that you have helped others learn and grow is becoming more critical.
Help You Gain Personal Satisfaction
It is personally fulfilling to know that your knowledge and expertise have helped somebody else grow and flourish in an area they reached out to you for help.
Mentoring Partnership: Benefits to the Mentee
Now let’s look at the benefits you will receive from a mentor as a mentee.
Help You Gain Valuable Advice.
Mentors have years of experience in what you are trying to do. They have been there and done that. They also share the same life values.
They have a LOT to share.
You can listen to them and brainstorm a new life/ business plan together. They will tell you shortcuts that help you achieve your goals more effectively.
They will also tell you how to avoid reinventing the wheel.
Develop Your Knowledge And Skills
Each mentoring session will help you increase your knowledge and wisdom. Mentors not only teach what you need to know, but they can also tell you where to get the information.
Improve your communication skills –
As we discussed, mentoring is always a mutually beneficial partnership. So just like your mentor, you will also build up your communication skills.
Get a Fresher Perspective Of Life.
Just as your mentor can learn new ways of thinking from you, you can learn from them too.
Build Your Network
Mentors have seen a fair share of life. As they are in the same field as yours, they have a more comprehensive network and can help you grow your network by connecting you with the right people.
Thus, getting mentored offers a fantastic opportunity to help you build relationships with valuable people.
Advance Your Career
When you are being mentored by someone who knows more than you, you can improve your chances of getting a better job, promotions, or hitting your business goals fast.
Mutual Mentoring
What is “mutual mentoring”?
It is something where people partner with a less experienced or equally experienced but willing person. This person is able to encourage you to think about what you want to reach in your career, challenge you to commit to your goals, and may help you keep track of your progress toward them.
You may find someone like this in your organization or network. If you do the same for them, you have the basis for a healthy and mutually-beneficial relationship.
Bottom Line
I hope you have understood the benefits of having a mentor and how you can do mutual mentoring.
When finding a mentor, look for someone who has already done what you want to achieve in your life. They must share the same values.
You will find this person to be at least 10 to 20 years (experience/age) ahead of you in your life. As mentoring is usually voluntary, these people are hard to find and can be rough around the edges.
But if you are persistent enough, you will find someone who will show you how to have a good life and get whatever you want.
