The Benefits of Taking on a Mentorship Role at this Stage in Your Career

In the world of business, nothing is ever accomplished in a vacuum. We all rely on others for their talent, their skill, and their guidance to help us navigate through increasingly competitive markets and industries.

Maybe you got to where you are today due in part to the valuable wisdom of a business mentor. And maybe, throughout your career, you have gained valuable insights into your industry that you wish you had known when you were just starting out. Either way, the true importance of a strong mentor-mentee relationship only becomes more apparent with each passing year.

Is now the right time to become someone’s mentor? Below, I have outlined what I believe are some of the greatest benefits of taking on a mentorship role.

1. A mentorship role can result in personal growth.?Taking on the responsibilities of a mentor can allow us to develop real, practical leadership skills we can bring to our careers. Working with a mentee can provide us with an opportunity to learn more effective ways to communicate and help us gain a deeper understanding of how our words and wisdom are received by others. Taking the lessons learned from a mentorship role and applying them to your career can lead to further leadership opportunities.
2. Mentorship allows you to pass it forward. In professional life, there are few feelings stronger than the sense of pride we feel when we see someone we admire succeed in their given field. Especially when that person is someone we have helped guide toward accomplishing their professional goals. In my opinion, the value of seeing a mentee’s hard work pay off and result in a promotion or new job opportunity is a tangible benefit in and of itself.?
3. Taking on a mentorship role can be a healthy challenge.?When someone entrusts you as a mentor in their life, they are implicitly telling you, “I trust your wisdom and I believe that you’re capable of helping me succeed in my career.” When we stop to think about the level of trust and confidence our mentees place in us, the pressure can build. Partly because we know that we won’t have all the answers. Truthfully, nobody can be the perfect mentor. We all have knowledge gaps. But a mentorship opportunity can allow us to self-reflect and challenge our own notions of our careers and industries. As a mentor, there will be times when you come up short, and an industry lesson or piece of career advice simply won’t work for your mentee. During times like these, we can reexamine what we think we know about our industry and discover new ways to approach certain aspects of our careers that we may take for granted.
4. Mentoring someone can help open new doors. Building strong connections in your industry is an opportunity we should never pass up. Whether your mentee is a younger member of your current organization, or a recent graduate looking for their first job, they may help you develop connections with other professionals in your industry you otherwise may not have had the opportunity to meet. These connections can help you discover more opportunities in your field, meet more clients, find more referrals for open positions within your organization, and build a stronger presence on social media sites such as LinkedIn.
5. Mentoring can help bridge a generation gap.?Particularly for those who don’t have much contact with younger people who are just starting out in their careers, taking on a mentorship role can help you understand the future of your industry. By developing a professional relationship with someone of a different generation, you can learn which values may be driving your industry in the coming years and decades. Simultaneously, a mentorship relationship also provides the opportunity to share with others the values and bits of knowledge that were passed on by former mentors who have helped shape your career.

Has a mentor or mentee relationship resulted in a positive impact on your career? What are some of your most impactful lessons learned from a mentor? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.