Mentoring Helps !!

You’ve probably heard that having a mentor can benefit the start of your career. But did you know it’s also great for established professionals?

Whether you’re a first-time student, career changer or seasoned executive, having a mentor can be one of the most rewarding professional relationships you’ll experience. And while the person in your partnership might change with each career phase, a few things will stay the same.

Who can be a mentor?

There’s little restriction on who can be a mentor, as staff of all skill and seniority levels generally have something to offer other employees in their quest for career advancement. Here are three common types of employees nominated to be mentors:

• More senior, experienced employees
  Here, a new or junior staff member is connected with a more senior staff member who may have had similar career aspirations or an interesting ascent to their current position. In this relationship, the senior staff member provides advice and shares their experiences with their mentee. They also introduce them to valuable people in their network, in the hope of providing new and exciting career opportunities for them.
• Employees in other teams or departments
  Sometimes mentors can come from unlikely places. This might be someone more junior from a different department, or someone senior from a regional or international office. Employers should always be willing to look beyond the traditionally hierarchical mentor-mentee structure to ensure that the staff are getting the training and insights they want and need most. A senior administration team member might be eager to learn more about marketing at the organisation, explaining why a junior staff member from one department could mentor someone more senior from another. An IT manager might be mentored by the IT executive from the overseas headquarters of the organisation, providing advice on how to manage teams remotely and preparing them for promotion down the track.
• New and junior employees, also known as reverse mentoring
  This is a strategy used to ensure that ideas and viewpoints don’t just flow from the top down at an organisation. It’s a case of making newer, junior staff members mentors to more experienced and established employees, in the hope they will impart their unique perspective and knowledge onto their senior colleagues.

Types of Mentoring:

There are four types of workplace mentoring i.e. formal mentoring and informal mentoring, peer mentoring and group mentoring.

1. Formal mentoring:

Formal mentoring is a process where two parties, preferably of the same department, are paired together in a mentor-mentee relationship.

2. Informal mentoring:

Informal mentoring is a voluntary process. Informal; the word itself defines the relationship of the mentor and mentee in this process.

3. Peer mentoring:

Peer mentoring does not always require people of different ranks. People from the same rank (for example the employees) can form a supportive group to help each other.

If you’re ready for a supportive relationship with career benefits, perhaps it’s time to consider becoming a mentee. You and your career will swap career journeys, share insights and extend your professional network. And ultimately, you’ll shape the future of your profession.