No doubt mentoring is critical to career advancement. Mentoring relationships need not be formal or contractual but do need to have ‘mission’ for it to work. How do you make mentoring more effective? It starts with getting a good mentor.
START WITH WHO CAN REALLY HELP YOU: Think first about your desired outcome and figure out what type of person can help you. A mentor does not need necessarily to be someone you already know. Ask your friends, colleagues about who can help you and how you can to meet them.
CHOOSE SOMEONE NOT TOO FAR AHEAD OF YOU: Most people target the ‘well known’ to be mentors. Whilst it’s good to learn from the best, for your immediate growth find a mentor who is a couple of levels above you so that they can relate to your situation better and vice versa.
MAKE IT WORTH THEIR WHILE: Discuss what you hope to achieve through the mentoring. Explain to your mentor why you chose to work with them and why they are a good match. Make it easy for them to want to help you. Put some thought into the issues you discuss with them so they learn something about how you think.
DON'T EXPECT THEM TO BE JACK OF ALL TRADES: You can and indeed should have more than one mentor for the different parts of your career; for example you could have a mentor for how to ‘manage’ your boss, a mentor for developing your financial skills and a mentor on career advancement so that you don’t drain one person.
FOLLOW UP AND REPORT BACK: Your mentor gives you advice and its professional and coureous to get back to them and let them know how useful the advice was. Show your appreciation by staying in touch with them and not only show up when you need them. Take some time regularly to reflect on what you’ve learned and feed this back to your mentor so that they know their efforts are making an impact.
Now take action: Find a mentor who will be best for supporting your 2012 goals.
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