Career Opportunities through Mentoring

What is a mentor vs. a coach vs. a consultant

A mentor serves as a teacher or trusted counselor. A coach serves you by asking you questions that help you get clarity and come up with the right answers yourself. A consultant is an expert who gives advice.

Having a mentor involves an interpersonal relationship in which the experienced teacher counsels and helps you. Mentoring is usually an ongoing process unlike consulting.

Importance of mentoring in career advancement

A mentor can help you in choosing your career path, creating clarity around your goals and issues, show you resources you were not aware of, guide you and make you feel empowered to create the career you deserve. A mentor usually has more experience in this area and thus they have more ideas, resources and tips to share with you. It is easy for them to point out opportunities that you yourself would have missed easily.

Mentoring helps you develop your talent for management and technical jobs as well as support you in shaping yourself into a future leader. Mentoring also empowers you to effectively pass along your knowledge and expertise throughout your organization. You mentor may use many tools such as assisting you with individual career problem solving as well as redefining your career success to significantly facilitate your career adaptation process.

Your mentor provides you with socioeconomic support and seeks to bolster your self-confidence and self-esteem. In that sense they act like coaches and teachers. On the other hand, your mentor will also actively intervene, sponsor your exposure and visibility by engaging you in assignments that involve working with management. You can also ask your mentor to endorse you for promotions and special projects.

What makes a good mentor / Skills of a mentor

A good mentor will create an open and supportive climate for you to share your ideas and concerns . They will seek to develop trust, encourage you by sharing their own personal experiences or difficult times they went through.

Respect is important in this relationship which is why you can expect your mentor to encourage you to embrace your individuality. They will help you discover options and will listen to you and help you to follow through on your commitments.

Asking questions to get you the answers you need is one of the main skills of a good mentor. These questions are mainly focused around creating clarity and direction for you.

Sharing feedback and praise is a crucial part of what a good mentor does because it will make you feel like you are on track and it will motivate you to go further. The praise and feedback includes areas you are handling well and those you need to improve to get to the level you want.

How to find a mentor

Finding a good mentor can be a challenge. The best way to go about it is to ask people you admire how they made it to where they are today. They will either recommend you someone or possibly become a mentor to you themselves. Another option is to contact a coach that focuses on career advancement and purpose development.