Have you been inspired by a great mentor in the past? I’ve been designing a mentoring program for a client and it’s reminded me of the sales mentors who have influenced my career and the importance of creating a strong mentoring partnership. Having a successful mentoring partnership provides so many benefits to both parties.
Benefits to the mentored include:
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Increased skills and knowledge
- Increased potential for career mobility, recognition and promotion
- Improved understanding of one’s role in the organization
- Insights into the culture and unwritten rules of the organization
- A supportive environment in which successes and failures can be evaluated in an encouraging manner
- A smoother transition into higher management positions
- A powerful learning tool to acquire competencies and professional experience
- Potential for increased visibility through networking opportunities
- Development of professional skills and self-confidence
- Encouragement from different perspectives and attitudes about one’s work
- Development of a greater appreciation of the complexities of decision-making within the organizational framework
Benefits to the mentor include:
- Opportunities to test new ideas
- Enhanced knowledge of other areas of expertise
- Renewed enthusiasm for one’s role as an experienced employee
- Higher level recognition of their value and skills by showing initiative to take on a mentoring role
- Challenging discussions with people who have fresh perspectives
- Satisfaction from contributing to someone else’s development
- Opportunities to reflect upon and articulate his or her role
- Improved ability to share experience and knowledge
- Development of a deeper awareness of his or her own behavior
- Improved interpersonal skills in coaching, listening, modeling and leading
So how do you find a mentor? Some organizations have a formal mentoring program in place. If yours doesn’t, take the time to find someone who’s reached the kinds of goals you are striving to reach and ask him or her to be your mentor for 90 days. Most people will be flattered by such a request. Ideally, the mentor should hold a more senior professional position. Once you’ve found a compatible partner, put together an agreement and set expectations for how you’ll work together.
Meeting on a regular basis allows you to share ideas and build on your progress as well as develop the trust and confidentiality that connects you together for a long time. This is the foundation upon which mutually rewarding relationships thrive.
1 Comment
These are excellent points Josiane and I have been blog mentoring for a while now and youo are spot on with the benefits.