I believe that receiving mentoring is a privilege. One that many are bereft of! Mentoring is the secret sauce for success, both in your personal and, of course, professional space. As someone who has been fortunate to have exceptionally invested mentors, I can vouch for the impact it has made on my life. The world around us can feel chaotic at times, with a constant barrage of feedback, advice, suggestions, challenges, and situations. To navigate through your dilemmas and predicaments, the role of a mentor cannot be emphasized enough. The right mentor can change your career & life! So, how to choose a mentor in life who is right for you and whom you can look up to?
A mentor is someone I’d call a beautiful intersection of a friend, philosopher, and guide. Being far more experienced, their tutelage is like the north star, always playing the role of the compass in your life to help you reach your destination. There is much inspiration to derive from their age-old conventional wisdom!
How To Choose a Mentor Who’s Right For You: 5 Tips!
Let us see how to choose a mentor in life who is right for you. When you decide to actively seek out mentors, look for certain qualities. Here are some attributes that will help identify the right mentor:
- A bias for positivity
- An empathetic attitude
- A patient listener
- A coach’s mindset
- A trusted advisor
- And a spiritual inclination
This is a lot to ask for; therefore, be selective when choosing your mentor!
Some of the common facets of your professional life where I recommend you reach out to your mentor for an unbiased third-person perspective are as follows. Look for a mentor who will help you navigate through the following:
1. Career Counselling
Career planning can sound like a fuzzy concept, more theoretical than practical. It’s a painful process that takes a lot of self-introspection and, therefore, needs a high degree of self-awareness. A mentor can help you articulate your career aspirations by helping you recognize your blind spots and potential strengths. It is also advisable to rely on their counsel while accepting promotions, progressions, or lateral movements as they can help you visualize the new challenges and, therefore, amplify your game.
2. Progression to a People Leader role
A career shift from being an individual contributor to a people leader is a significant change in responsibilities, as there are added challenges of nurturing and developing your team. Being in tune with your team’s aspirations, motivations, and working styles needs emotional intelligence, and that’s precisely where a mentor’s foresight into human behavior can come in handy and take benefits and tips from their career coaching.
Recommended Read: 5 Tips for positive relationships at work!
3. Work-life Crisis
If you’re someone who finds their work and life conflicting on a consistent basis, a mentor can be a fallback to pour your heart out and seek effective strategies for balancing all facets of your life. Most likely your mentor will have gone through the struggle themselves and have some golden principles on compartmentalizing your life they can pass on to you.
4. Business restructuring/ Job loss
Corporate restructuring is the order of the day, and you could find yourself in a vulnerable spot due to factors beyond your control. A mentor can be your sounding board in times of anxiety and possibly suggest alternative strategies for survival and staying relevant.
5. Financial/ Legal situations
A mentor has the gift of vision, which lets them envisage situations and solutions with a certain accuracy. It’s a good idea to reach out to them if you are struggling with financial or legal hassles, especially since such issues have long-standing personal consequences.
I have personally felt the power of mentoring with the sheer clarity of perspective that it has given me. You could feel the power, too, in a lot of tangible ways, such as improved quality of decisions, reduced conflict, improved relationships, emotional steadiness, and personal growth, all leading to career progress. You will find that a lot of people who are successful will have leveraged this understated instrument to its best potential.
The return on investment (ROI) from mentoring is tacit but manifold and multifaceted! Look around you, and most likely, you will already have one person who has your best interest at heart.
The question to ask yourself is – Am I ready to be mentored?
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