Being A Mentor
Being a mentor is an extremely responsible role to take on, but it can also be very rewarding. It provides a way to put your own knowledge and experience to good use in helping other people to make improvements in their own lives; personal or professional.
Mentoring has been a very popular role in society in general and is a form of leadership that is certainly beneficial within business circles. One of the most important items to remember is that a mentor does not have to be a senior member of staff helping a more junior member. While employees aren’t likely to mentor senior staff members it is true that people on the same level as each other can be of assistance in this way if both parties are agreeable.
This is one of the most important things to remember if you are thinking of becoming a mentor yourself – both people need to voluntarily take part in a mentoring situation. It doesn’t matter how enthusiastic you are when it comes to wanting to mentor someone else whom you think you could help; if they are not willing to give it a try then it is unlikely you will be able to persuade them otherwise. In this situation you should simply let them know you are there and ready to help should they change their mind.
If you are thinking about becoming a mentor you need to have several qualities to really be successful at it.
The first one – and perhaps the most important – is the ability to maintain a bond of trust with the person you are mentoring. Regular meetings and get togethers will help to establish a good relationship between you and the other person and it is essential that everything which is spoken about during the time you spend together discussing whatever is necessary is kept completely private. This is the only way mentoring will work successfully.
You will also need to have the ability to listen without judging the other person. It may be that they are having trouble focusing at work and their performance has slipped as a result. In this case you would need to listen to their problems and offer advice on possible solutions without berating them for their bad performance. If they have decided to take part in the mentoring program then they have already taken a huge step in the right direction.
Although the role of a mentor entails helping one person at a time, it can also have a huge effect on team performance. The more motivated and pro-active team member, who is benefiting from having a mentor, will gain enough from the experience to enhance and improve their working performance which in turn affects the other people they work with.
By being a mentor you are offering people a chance to improve their working lives without punishing them in the process. As a pro-active and positive way of helping people, mentoring has a lot to commend it.
