Finding a mentor

Finding a mentor

I can't overemphasize the advantage of having one or two knowledgeable, well connected, mentors. A mentor is a person more senior than yourself who takes an interest in you and your career. It can be a

  • Family member
  • Friend of the family
  • Old boss
  • Professor you had in college
  • Or anyone else

?The key is that they can give you quality professional advice and ideally have the contacts and influence to help move you ahead professionally. The proper mentor can greatly accelerate your upward professional movement by connecting you to the right person or providing you with the insight to make the right decision,

?There will be times during your career when you are at a professional crossroad when the help and advice of a mentor can be enormously valuable. Should you take the new job? Should you go back to school full time? Should you take a promotion even if it also means going to work for a person you don’t trust or respect? Do you fire a poor performing employee if he is the president’s nephew? The answers to questions like these can have a major impact (good or bad) on your career. Advice from a person more experienced than you, can provide you with the insights to take the right step.

?Your mentor should be someone you like, trust, and respect. It also should be someone that can give you good advice. You can get bad advice anywhere. Really good advice is hard to come by.

?At times in my career, I have been on both sides of the mentoring scenario.? When I have had the good fortune to have someone of knowledge, experience, and position to take interest in me, it had been of incredible value. It’s because of those experiences that I find myself always willing to help others when able to do so. I’m paying it forward as a thank you to those who took an interest in me.

?If you have a mentor, consider the following.

  • No relationship should be a one way street
  • Treat your mentors in the way they deserve, with respect, trust, thankfulness and friendship
  • Mentors help people out of the goodness of their heart and because they have taken an interest in your success
  • They know that because of their position relative to yours that it will be difficult or impossible to reciprocate in kind
  • Not being able to reciprocate in kind to a mentor is ok, it’s the nature of mentoring
  • As a thank you to your mentor, pay it forward and be willing to be a mentor when the situation presents itself

?Lastly, as an additional piece of advice, don’t just sit back and wait for a mentor to find you. If you know of someone you respect, trust, and you think could help you, reach out to that person in a respectful and appropriate way. At best, you have found yourself a mentor and potentially life-long friend and confidant. At worse, they say no, but may actually be flattered that you asked.

?The primary advice and takeaways are to know that:

  • The right mentor can be of great value to you both personally and professionally
  • Mentoring is a two-way street; treat your mentors with respect, trust, thankfulness and friendship
  • Feel free to appropriately reach out to a potential mentor and ask for their assistance

?

??(First published in GateHouse News Service.)

Gwen Acton, PhD

CEO of Vivo Group | Strategic Leadership Practices for Science & Technology Innovation | Transforming Brilliant Scientists & Engineers into Inspiring Leaders

2 个月

Having mentors are so important for leaders and managers Eric Bloom. Thanks for the article.

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Dr. Axel Meierhoefer,

From employee to real estate investor: Guiding your path to financial freedom.

2 个月

I totally agree Eric Bloom. Similar to you, I have been on both sides as well, more on mentoring lately and receiving mentoring in the past. I have found that the mentor should be external to the organization, and he or she should be very familiar with the issues you are struggling with. In my practice as a business owner and consultant who holds mentoring and coaching certifications, I have often found that a combination of both business coaching and business mentoring leads to amazing results. The coaching applies wonderfully when it is pretty obvious that the answers and solutions exist within you. The mentoring, on the other hand, is based on the experience I had, updated to today's environment and technology, and then discussed and refined, especially when time is of the essence. It is often a wonderful combination of both that provides amazing results and long-term relationships

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Star Dargin, PCC, CPCC, VC

Leadership Coach | Workshop Leader | Facilitator | Speaker | Author | Innovation | Gratitude | Practical | Results, Now!

2 个月

Great article. I 100% believe in mentoring. Having had great mentors, been a mentor, and led mentoring workshops for over ten years. Companies that have formal mentoring programs do very well (there are stats to show that somewhere). The higher you get in an organization, the more mentors there are everywhere, and there is not one mentor. It's a handful and more targeted. A financial mentor, a political mentor, a introduce me mentor :)

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Dr. Serge Findling

Chief Information Officer | Executive | Thought Leader | Advisor | AI | Digital Transformation | Innovation | Information Technology | Strategy | Governance | Data | Planning | Operations | Computer Sc. | Communications

2 个月

Mentorship is beneficial for both the mentee and the mentor. In my experience, focusing too much on calculating the benefits of mentorship is a mistake. Approaching mentorship with an open mind and an open heart tends to lead to positive outcomes. Thank you for bringing a great discussion, Eric Bloom!

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