Are you ready for your Mentor?

When the student is ready, the teacher will ?appears,. When the student is fully ready the teacher disappears – Lao Tzu?

Organization across the globe are looking to retain talent and develop leaders internally. All this and more through various L&D initiatives and also a strong mentoring programme. As per Forbes report, 80 % of the Fortune 500 companies have solid mentoring programmes to develop their future leaders.

For growth in any area of our life, we have been advised to seek out mentors. A Mentor, who has walked the same path, and “been there and done that”.

However, these definitions can be fluid in today’s world, your mentor can be from a different field, much younger than you and may not even have similar patterns of thinking like yours. And that exactly is what you may require to build yourself in your career.

A mentor by your side, means you have faster pace, guided navigation through lean areas of your journey and well, hardly any blind spots to confuse you or derail you. A mentor is also someone who may push you to open your mind to new possibilities and explore diverse pathways.?

They are also someone who can walk that growth journey emotionally with you. Someone you can be sure is behind the scenes cheering for you.

All this and more is acheivable, if you find your right mentor and you are the perfect mentee to them.

Some points to be a good mentee or student:

1. Research well: Once you decide you want a mentor, research well on the domain you want to be mentored on. Deep dive into your career and personal goals and identify those segments where you believe a mentor will be great support

2.???? Network and build relationships: Networking is a great form of getting to know people from diverse areas and being there to observe and seek mentorship

3.???? Time Commitment: Mentor and mentee need to invest sufficient time on a regular basis for the partnership to work smoothly.

Be sure, the mentor you identified is willing to help you and provide you with their time on regular basis for your growth

4.???? Alignment: Every person you come across has something to teach you on philosophy of life on career or any other personal growth areas. That does not mean they are right fit for you.

Your peers, superiors may have mentors and may have suggestions for the right kind of mentor for you, however, ultimately you need to be sure that these suggestions or people are whom you want to learn from and grow. If you are not aligned principally with your mentors values or overall being, then don’t force their mentorship on you.

Do a favour to yourself and them, find someone whom you align with, respect and are open to learn from.

5.???? Have an open mind: You are lucky if you have secured a mentor willing to support you in your chosen area, especially career. Reports have found that professionals with mentors have found their professional life much more fulfilling and successful than those without.

For you to be able to reap benefits of this partnership you need to let go off your ego and be willing to learn. That is possible when you keep an open mind.

6.???? Apply your learnings: It is not sufficient that you have conversations that enlighten you with your mentor. It is essential that you apply those learning in your daily life or apply to nearest opportunity that presents itself.

Application of learning builds in your experience and you know how the learning works.?

When you seek out growth and then you have mentors to help you walk that path, bring in your true self, be vulnerable and be humble.

Go with the curiosity of the child and emerge as a learner for life.

I am a talent acquisition expert and a career coach building my practice. I write about the topics closest to my mind, be it candidate experience, recruitment, future of Talent acquisition, or about my professional experience.?

If you liked what you read here, do connect with me and let me know your thoughts and what more would you suggest I write about.