Ten Reasons Why You Should Get A Mentor
Do these apply to you?
- You’re not progressing as fast as you want to be.
- You feel you’re not yet fulfilling your potential
- You are being overshadowed by competition.
- You are failing in any aspect of your career.
- You are failing to make the impact you desire.
If you are, a mentor may just be the answer. Most people would agree that better levels of professional success can be achieved with the guidance and help of a mentor. This is because a mentor is someone with whom you can discuss your career, evaluate your options, solicit wise opinions, set achievement goals and just generally work through any issues you may encounter along the way.
TIM KIDSON, organisational consultant.
Here are ten benefits from getting a mentor or getting involved in a mentoring partner/programme:
- Respect. When you are mentored you are respected and listened to. Just knowing that someone believes in you and wants to have a hand in your success can be very empowering. As a result you will grow in wisdom and knowledge and self confidence if you can take the advice and guidance given.
- Safety. A mentoring relationship provides a safe environment in which you can learn and ask questions and admit gaps in knowledge without fear of reprisal from an employer.
- Experience. The mentor will share years of experience and failures which you can learn from and when this is done, it means you will not have to directly experience them and go through the same lessons. In essence time is compressed.
- Networks. Mentoring will teach you how to professionally network, which brings benefits in terms of opening gateways for future business.
- Credibility. The mentor will introduce you to new contacts and endorse you and provide credibility through association.
- Fast Track. Mentoring enables you to move from where you are now to where you want to be in the future, in a much faster way than you might travel alone.
- Knowledge. A simple but highly effective and applicable benefit is that through the mentor's teaching, business skill levels and knowledge increase.
- Upskilling. You'll listen better, develop more, hone your skills and 'up your game' by getting around a mentor.
- Secrets. An unusual but much needed benefit of mentoring is that you can learn some unwritten rules of business which can be applied to help you achieve your objectives successfully.
- Encouragement. Mentoring provides positive encouragement, support and guidance that is always well needed and received.
If you're still unsure about the whole mentoring thing, check out the Mentoring Bible, which tells you how to find mentors, approach them, work with them, and the key differences between mentoring and coaching.
The jury's in! Mentoring is a powerful development tool that is ignored at your peril. So who might be part of your 'virtual board'?
Rob's Quick Tips
Finding and building a relationship with a good mentor can be priceless for your career, personal and professional development. Here's what one can give you:
- Someone to listen to you.
- Someone to give you the room to grow.
- Someone to give you the benefit of their experience.
- Someone who can lend you credibility.
- Someone to get you ahead.
- Someone to share their knowledge with you.
- Someone to make you 'up your game'.
- Someone to share secrets with.
- Someone to keep you going.
© Rob Brown 2009. All Rights Reserved. To publish or reprint any Rob Brown article, the following must be included:
Rob Brown is one of the UK's leading authorities on business networking and referrals. He is an inspirational conference speaker and author of over 40 publications, including Amazon best-seller How To Build Your Reputation. Go to www.rob-brown.com for your free 60 page copy of ‘The 13 Commandments of Turning Relationships Into Profits', or get in touch on (44) 115 846 21227 or rob@rob-brown.com for details of his motivational presentations, business winning programmes and relationship-building resources.