Is mentoring right for you? The start of a new year is a natural time for taking stock and making plans. Particularly when it comes to boosting your career.
You may be planning to go for that promotion, change direction or turn that hobby into a business. Whatever you want to do, one of the most impactful and cost-effective strategies to help you move forward is to get yourself a mentor.
Mentoring is a great strategy for knowledge exchange and support – the word ‘mentor’ comes from Greek mythology. It actually means ‘enduring’ and has become synonymous with the idea of a trusted adviser or wise person.
In a professional context, a mentor is traditionally someone more senior or with more experience. Someone who shares his or her wisdom and knowledge with a junior person. Someone like Mr Miyagi of Karate Kid fame, for example. However, over recent times other forms of mentoring have become increasingly popular:
Peer mentoring: The partners do not need to have an age or experience gap, as what is recognised is what each person brings to the relationship. It’s about their ability to support another person from a place of understanding, for example, students mentoring other students.
Circle mentoring: Where a mentor works with more than one mentee, allowing participants to benefit from both peer and traditional mentoring styles simultaneously.
Reverse mentoring: This form of mentoring benefits both parties, but the mentor is the junior person. The partnership helps with support and knowledge exchange, keeping the more senior person up to date with technology and day-to-day issues.
Whatever the process or structure, mentoring has continued to grow hand in hand with career development because it produces impactful results. Here are just four ways mentoring can help you to develop and boost your career.
1. Improved self-awareness
Self-awareness is defined as ‘conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives and desires’.
In the context of a business, this may not sound as important as technical skills. But, self-awareness is a key ability, forming the foundation of great leadership and management skills. For example, a self-aware team leader is able to understand their own strengths and weaknesses and apply that understanding to others.
At its heart, mentoring offers the perfect platform for the in-depth self-reflection required to be an effective mentor. Self-awareness enables leaders to identify the complementary skills required of their colleagues and team members.
2. Increased networking opportunities
Many of us understand the value of building relationships with others as a way of adding value to our professional lives. Those relationships may be with team members, stakeholders or clients, for example. Building an understanding is essential to creating trust in a mentoring relationship.
Mentoring not only offers the opportunity to develop a number of skills for the mentee, but also for the mentor. What’s more, it can have a powerful ripple effect on the professional relationships of those involved and adds value to the businesses they work in.
3. Better accountability
Most of us have experienced setting a goal or an action plan for change. But while these can often start with enthusiasm, in some instances they may go awry before you have a chance to make a new habit stick. This is where mentoring programmes can help. Built By Us, for example, use coaching techniques which not only help identify SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely) but also give parties the opportunity to review and reflect on their actions and learn lessons.
4. Growth in confidence
The term role model can have a number of connotations; from the infallible professional to the superhero. The truth is that we all have the potential to be a role model, good, bad or indifferent. And we should embrace opportunities to be a positive one to others.
Mentoring offers huge opportunities to grow the leadership skills of mentees (and mentors) which are useful in progressing your career.
Consider mentoring
So remember, whether it’s delivered as an in-house company programme, or external opportunity, it’s worth considering the use of this strategy as a way of boosting your career!
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