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Mentoring: A word to the wise
As the summer of 2011 – one of rain, more rain and riots– draws to a close, you’ll be entering a busy time. You need to be willing and able to perform at the highest level over the coming months. Are you ready for everything the job throws at you or would a bit of help come in handy? Help comes in many forms: time with your manager, training, coaching, gaining experience on the job, but you may feel you need something else. A helping hand from someone who’s been there.
A mentor is someone more experienced, often more senior, who has relevant wisdom to share and willingness to be generous with it. Mentoring enables an individual to follow in the path of an older and wiser colleague who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities.
Some of our most rewarding work comes from being asked to mentor people. Our brand of wisdom is people intelligence and that is what we have to pass on. We help people to navigate their way through managing the maze of relationships, alliances, colleagues and challenges that are critical to their success at work. People tell us we really make a difference to the way they think and act.
Talk to us about how we can help you navigate that maze.
When sourcing a mentor, it is important to know what you’re looking for. Here is a checklist of some of things you should expect from a mentor. They should be:
- Someone who listens
- Someone who helps you explore opportunities
- Someone who will have good ideas about how to deal with difficult situations
- Willing to share their experience and knowledge
- Able to help you to stay on track and reach your goals
- Able to stay independent and not get too personally involved.
So what could a mentor do for you? Good mentors should provide a combination of support and challenge to help you improve on areas where you struggle and develop your strengths to the max. Mentors do offer advice. They do it from a position of knowledge and experience and they offer it understanding that it may or may not be accepted.
We find that an individual can achieve much more in a few two hour mentoring sessions than they ever could on a generic course. Mentoring is powerful, because it is targeted, it gets to the root of the problem and this means solutions follow swiftly. Mentors are usually sought out – people know who they want and can be of most value to them, so trust is established quickly.
With many years of mentoring under our belts, we are keen to share our wisdom where it can be of use. So contact us to talk more about mentoring for you.