How can mentorship build your Business Intelligence (BI) network?

Can’t find a mentor in your local community? Chances are, you are not alone. THIS is YOUR SIGN ?? that it’s up to YOU to build a house of OPPORTUNITIES where others can connect. Never underestimate the power of peers for mentorship. With online platforms like Slack, Teams, Discord, Facebook (Meta) & LinkedIn Groups, it’s never been cheaper to create a home to connect others asynchronously in a medium that works for you. Once you’ve created a home base, set up your first meeting a month or more out. Write down 4 questions you wanted to ask mentors, and make those the meeting talking points. For best results- share clear communication that your meeting is a SALES PITCH FREE zone and is tool agnostic. Then use social media to alert others!

Any relationship takes work. At the onset of a one on one relationship- set expectations for how often you’d like to chat, but my advice is to err on the side of flexibility. Personally I prefer asynchronous chats on LinkedIn- and my mentees know if I don’t respond they can text my cell if 48 hours go by and I haven’t responded. If you know your mentor is busy, ask THEM about their communication method of choice is. You are responsible to articulate at the onset what “success” looks like for the relationship and what goals you are working to achieve. Remember, the best mentorship’s are ones that turn into friendships- but not all will. I assure you mentors can learn just as much from YOU, so don’t be shy to ask what you might share!

To learn, start with clearly defining your business /personal challenge. “I need to learn Tableau” is VERY different than saying; “I need to learn how to construct a data visualization that will convince my boss to make X operational change so Y can impact (stakeholder).” This broadens the opportunities for mentoring you can gain far beyond just a tool itself. You can open yourself to learn about new tools, and soft skills to really help you in your development. For best results- share what style of learning you prefer along the way, so your mentor can send you media they find that matches your style of learning- podcasts, webinars etc. IMPORTANT: If your mentor suggests checking something out- DO IT - and then share your takeaways

For best practices can be tricky with mentors. Remember mentors whom are more than 5 years older than you offer a wealth of knowledge and lived-experience, HOWEVER, their situations will always be drastically different than the culture and situations you are facing. Sometimes the "best practices" from 5 years ago won't work in your environment, as the technology landscape can change, and you are facing different users with different levels of data literacy. This is why it's important to seek input from formal mentors AND peer community members AND trusted research from places like Forrester or Gartner or IIA and then use your own critical thinking skills to adapt responses to fit your situation.

To build trust and credibility, learn what "imposter syndrome" is, as well as the "Dunning-Kruger effect". Get comfortable with articulating what IS and what IS NOT in your wheelhouse of advice to offer. NEVER be afraid to say "I don't know..." but then follow that up with... - "...but we can find out together." -"...yet, but future us knows!" -"...but (X person/source) does, I'll connect you." -"...but I can take that back to my team and let you know by tomorrow EOD." -"...but if you can tell me more about how your question ties to (curiosity/business need), I may have more related insights I can share to help you make a decision." -"...but let me know a good time to meet up with you and explore that with you this week."