How can mentorship improve your self-awareness?

1 What is mentorship?

Mentorship is a relationship between a mentor and a mentee, where the mentor shares their knowledge, experience, and feedback with the mentee, who is seeking to improve their skills, performance, or career. Mentorship can take different forms, such as formal or informal, one-on-one or group, short-term or long-term, or online or offline. The main goal of mentorship is to help the mentee achieve their personal and professional objectives, while also benefiting the mentor with new insights, perspectives, and networks.

2 How does mentorship improve self-awareness?

Mentorship can improve your self-awareness in several ways. First, a mentor can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, and provide you with honest and constructive feedback on your actions, behaviors, and outcomes. This can help you recognize your areas of improvement, as well as your unique value proposition. Second, a mentor can help you explore your interests, passions, and goals, and align them with your values and purpose. This can help you discover your motivation, direction, and potential. Third, a mentor can help you challenge your assumptions, beliefs, and biases, and expose you to new ideas, opportunities, and perspectives. This can help you broaden your horizons, expand your learning, and foster your creativity.

3 How to find a mentor?

Finding a mentor can be a daunting task, but there are some steps you can take to make it easier. First, you need to define your objectives and expectations for the mentorship. What do you want to learn, achieve, or change? What kind of support, guidance, or feedback do you need? How often and how long do you want to meet with your mentor? Second, you need to identify potential mentors who match your criteria. You can look for mentors within your organization, industry, network, community, or online platforms. You can also ask for referrals from your colleagues, friends, or family. Third, you need to reach out to your prospective mentors and initiate a conversation. You can introduce yourself, explain your goals and reasons for seeking mentorship, and ask if they are interested and available to be your mentor.

4 How to make the most of mentorship?

Once you find a mentor, you need to make the most of the mentorship opportunity. Here are some tips to help you do that. First, you need to communicate clearly and regularly with your mentor. You need to share your progress, challenges, questions, and feedback with your mentor, and listen to their advice, suggestions, and insights. You also need to respect their time, availability, and boundaries, and follow up on your commitments and action plans. Second, you need to be open-minded and willing to learn from your mentor. You need to accept their feedback, even if it is critical or uncomfortable, and apply it to your improvement. You also need to challenge yourself, take risks, and try new things that your mentor recommends or offers. Third, you need to appreciate and reciprocate your mentor's efforts. You need to thank your mentor for their support, recognition, and encouragement, and acknowledge their impact on your growth. You also need to offer your mentor your own knowledge, experience, or network, and help them with their goals or challenges.

5 How to evaluate your self-awareness?

Evaluating your self-awareness is an important part of the mentorship process. It can help you measure your progress, identify your gaps, and adjust your strategies. Here are some ways to evaluate your self-awareness. First, you can use self-assessment tools, such as surveys, quizzes, or tests, that measure your personality, values, skills, or emotional intelligence. You can compare your results with your previous ones, or with your mentor's or peers' ones, and see how you have changed or improved. Second, you can use feedback tools, such as 360-degree feedback, peer review, or performance appraisal, that collect and analyze the opinions of others about your performance, behavior, or impact. You can use the feedback to validate or challenge your self-perception, and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Third, you can use reflection tools, such as journals, logs, or portfolios, that document and review your experiences, actions, outcomes, and learnings. You can use the reflection to understand your patterns, triggers, and choices, and discover your interests, passions, and goals.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?