In your daily work, do you support others with your experience, knowledge gained over the years and practical tips? Do you do it involuntarily, or do you very consciously support others because you just like it?
If you answer yes to all of these questions, it’s a sign that you have the aptitude to be a mentor to others. However, in order to adopt a mature mentoring attitude, to find yourself in this role, you need to learn it properly. It’s one thing to mentor on a casual basis, it’s another to do it “professionally.”
What roles are assigned to a good mentor?
- Advisor – has expertise that he can and wants to share;
- Inspirer – mobilizes to go beyond the usual patterns, to seek unusual and innovative solutions,
- Supportive – encourages action and boosts self-esteem,
- Coach – catalyzes learning from mentee’s own experiences
- Sponsor in the organization – is a source of knowledge about the company and employees, knows many suitable people with whom to get to know the mentee, which will contribute to its development or promotion,
- Model – a role model that presents the qualities and behaviors by which you can achieve success in the organization.
Do you feel you are capable of performing these roles? If so, fantastic. It is true that mentoring is not for everyone. It requires the ability to remove oneself from the shadows and put the mentored person first – their experiences, their challenges. For this is primarily about HER development, not yours.
This does not mean, however, that YOU should not benefit from the relationship. Professional mentoring works both ways. It enriches the personality. It encourages people to push their own limits. It teaches conscious humanity. Develops.
For experienced managers who have already achieved a lot in their careers, mentoring is sometimes the next step, a step towards doing something else, something more, something meaningful, but not in a material way. It is to make sense of the conduct of a mature, empathetic person. Sometimes, mentoring also allows you to return to a sense of agency and being active. Do you feel that way too?
