Today a lot of professionals say that mentoring or coaching is too time-consuming.
They have already a lot on their plate, or they just do not know enough to mentor someone.
They ask themselves: "How can I be a mentor if I am still new in industry and have 1-2-3 years of experience?"
People often imagine a mentor as "this one perfect person who is older than you, wiser than you, and who will somehow magically advise you and take care of you professionally."
Unfortunately, it is not always realistic.
And the real secret is that: Everyone knows something that someone else does not.
Anyone can be a mentor! It is not limited to people with decades of experience.
Think back to when you first started applying for jobs. Would not it have been nice to get some coaching from someone who already been through that process a while ago, and had so many job interviews behind?
As you get further in your career, it is smart to seek the advice of someone who has been in the industry for 3+ years.
But when you are trying, for example, to land your first job, the perspective of younger professionals is more actionable. They can relate to your challenges, and their experiences are fresh in their minds.
Here I am just showing how anyone can be a mentor.
Mentorship is not a one-way transaction. I have found that mentors often get just as much out of the exchange as mentees.
And the benefits of being a mentor are:
Discovering New Ideas
Advising another professional is critical to moving your own career along. Why? Because you can miss so many new ideas if you are only focused on looking up.
Mentoring meetings with professionals and entrepreneurs can give you new business ideas coming from them.
Moreover, you have to challenge your thinking all the time, apply your knowledge to different situations to help people you are mentoring. In this way, you also train your brain to come up with solutions to problems smoothly, quickly, and rightly. Soon you will notice how your business or career grow and progress.
Building Professional Network
When you develop a relationship with someone over time, help, coach, and guide them - that person's success is tied to you. That success comes back to the mentor too.
Once you developed an advising relationship and helped someone find success, you may end up working with that person down the road.
Some people would step into great careers. And one day, you might want to partner with them, hire them, or do business together.
Think of it as networking down. You don't want to be out of touch with the newest generation of professionals.
Developing Strong Relationships
Remember, to be successful, you have to bring other people along. You have to help people to become successful.
Get involved with a community that you feel really aligned with. Check out alumni groups or their networks. Look for the passionate students or employees who want to learn and grow.
Advising can be as simple as meeting someone for coffee or giving some advice when needed. You may not initially see how, but trust me, the benefits will come back around to you.
Conclusion
To become a good mentor, you need the right skills and knowledge to help everyone in their career and life in general.
And because there are so many people that feel lost, there is a high demand for good life coaches or mentors in general.
The mentoring relationship is built on mutual trust, respect, communication, and involves both parties meeting regularly to exchange ideas, discuss progress, and set goals for further development.
Though mentoring can be a genuinely great experience, becoming a mentor is a big decision, and it should not to be taken lightly.
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Thank you for reading! 🙏
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Top comments (3)
Yep! It is necessary to recognize that you have come a long way from where you started from and it would save someone a loooot of blood, sweat and tears if you just told them to - learn Git first, then start using a real IDE, and how to ask good questions on Stackoverflow. 😇
My boss recently made me a mentor for our new guy, who is in Melbourne. I live in Hobart (about 2 hours flight away, same time zone). I can see why he made this move: not just because the new guy will be taking up the role in Melb that I've been filling in temporarily, but also because it'll push me further down my own career path.
I'm a lot overwhelmed by it. Is there such thing as a meta-mentor? I guess I'll just keep contacting the new guy, suggest things to look at, tickets to take. There is a lot to learn and it's great revision for me too. I just wonder if I'm doing it right, could I be seeing him up for a good start, or a bad one?
Good write ups here, having an issue with proper jquery installation and setup so my code would be displayed