Do you feel stuck in your professional development, like you want to grow but just don’t know how to continue to move forward?
Whether you’re just starting out in your field or are a seasoned veteran, having a mentor can help you navigate the challenges of the professional world and reach new heights of success.
Mentoring, put simply, is a form of development in which an experienced individual, called a mentor, helps guide and support a less experienced person, called a mentee.
Mentoring is a mutually beneficial relationship in which the mentor shares their knowledge, skills, and experience with the mentee, helping them to develop their professional and personal abilities.
From gaining a new perspective to creating a sense of accountability, mentorship can help you reach new levels of leadership capacity.
So, whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your career to the next level, read on to discover the power of mentorship in professional development.
Gain a new perspective
A mentor can provide valuable insights and a new perspective on your career and professional development.
Mentors can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, and provide guidance on how to improve and achieve your goals.
Unfortunately, every person suffers from blind spots. It doesn’t matter how strong you are as a leader or how much experience you have, you’ll always have areas of growth that you can’t even see in yourself.
For example, you may not realize the impact of the way you interact with others and how that affects your success or how your behavior or attitude is perceived. A mentor can help you see these issues and uncover ways to approach them.
Mentors have also often experienced multiple cycles in your industry. This helps them anticipate issues you may run into and offer suggestions to avoid them.
They can also provide you with different methods of tackling problems and long-term strategies for achieving success.
Mentors may even be trained in personality assessments like DISC, Myers-Briggs, or the Enneagram, which can help you explore parts of yourself you may have overlooked.
Those who have project management certifications like PMP or Agile may also be able to help you gain knowledge and practice to help you in your career.
Furthermore, mentors who have different networks and expertise than yours can provide you with new ideas and resources that you’d never had access to before.
Build a supportive network
A mentor can introduce you to their professional network, providing valuable connections and resources.
These new networks can open doors to new job opportunities, collaborations, or even mentee opportunities.
Depending on your industry, having access to a larger network of experienced professionals who can help you stay up-to-date on what’s going on in your field can be invaluable for professional development in the short-term and future career prospects in the long-term.
Let’s imagine you’re a software engineer relatively new to the field. A mentor could start by introducing the mentee to a local tech meetup or conference that focuses on software engineering related topics.
These meetups would give the mentee an opportunity to network with other professionals in the field and gain insight into the industry.
Furthermore, a mentor could even join the mentee at the event to provide moral support and guidance throughout the networking process. Having a more experienced professional with you may even help people take you more seriously.
The mentor could also provide tips on how to make the most out of the opportunity, such as introducing oneself to different people in the room and following up with contacts after the event.
If you already have a mentor — either one you’ve connected with relationally or one assigned by your employer — you can try suggesting some of the above to help them open their network up for you.
Learn from experience
A mentor has the benefit of more experience and can share valuable lessons learned throughout their career. They can provide guidance on how to navigate challenges, and offer advice on how to avoid common mistakes.
This is probably the most obvious of all of the benefits of having a mentor, but it is definitely worth mentioning.
Being able to tap into the knowledge, lessons learned, and life experience of a more experienced professional can be invaluable.
This is because it will help to bridge the gap between the knowledge, skills, and experience that you have and those that you need to succeed in your field. There’s a lot that you simply can’t learn except through on-the-job experience.
If you’re just finding your footing in a new industry, you will probably need help navigating common challenges in that field.
If you’re a recent grad working in the tech industry, your mentor could share their experiences making the transition from student to professional.
A mentor might provide advice on how to prioritize work, deal with difficult team dynamics, or even explain how to negotiate for a raise.
Having someone who’s been through your challenges can be incredibly helpful in your development.
Even when your mentor doesn’t have experience in that specific field, they might have more general advice on how to navigate challenges such as work/life balance, navigating difficult conversations with co-workers, etc.
Get personalized feedback
A mentor can provide personalized feedback on your performance, skills and behavior, which can help you identify areas for improvement. They can also provide constructive criticism and help you develop a plan of action to improve.
This can be especially helpful if your mentor is not someone who is responsible for supervising you in any way within your organizational structure.
In many cases, when feedback is given from someone who is responsible for evaluating you, there can be a fear of reprisal or fear of judgement, which can stifle the effectiveness of the feedback.
When a mentor provides feedback, it provides an outside perspective and a safe environment for you to identify weaknesses and take the time to develop a plan for improvement.
Seeking out constructive feedback is critical to developing as an emerging leader.
As mentioned above, we’re often simply unaware of what we need.
A mentor can help you identify areas where you need to grow, and then provide guidance to help you reach your full potential.
Once you know what you need to do, you can take the steps to develop. This can come in the form of developing competencies or getting some formal training.
Create a sense of accountability
A mentor can also serve as a sounding board for your ideas, and hold you accountable for your actions and goals, much as a leadership coach does.
Accountability partners like mentors and coaches can help you stay focused and motivated, and ensure that you are making progress towards your objectives.
For most of us, actually ensuring we stay on top of our goals and finish them can be a struggle.
A mentor can provide much needed support and accountability to ensure that you stay on track.
If you’re not already doing this, you can simply ask your mentor, “Would you mind asking me how that action step went during our next meeting?”
By doing this, your mentor can provide you with reminders so you don’t forget, and also encourage you to stay focused and on track.
It’s also worth noting that research has proven that simply telling someone else about a goal increases the likelihood of its successful completion
Therefore, you should take advantage of sharing some of your short-term goals with your mentor
Overall, having a mentor can be incredibly beneficial. From providing valuable resources, to imparting their knowledge and experience, to establishing a sense of accountability, the benefits of having a mentor are numerous.
So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to make the most of your career, you should strongly consider seeking out a mentor.
If you already have a mentor and would like further support or would like to experience some of the unique benefits of coaching, book your no-risk free 15-minute consultation with one of our professional coaches today!