Why Join a Mentoring Program?

Joining a mentoring program is a very powerful tool that can help you reach your potential because of the training and empowerment it provides. Mentoring is also one of the most effective ways for you to advance in your career because your skills are developed and your performance is monitored. In short, mentoring enables you to be the person you really want to be. 

 

Two-Way Relationship

 

It is important to realize though that mentoring is a relationship between two people who trust and respect each other. Mentoring is not simply a teacher-student relationship; rather, it is a partnership that will help both the mentor and the mentee grow both personally and professionally. 

 

The mentor can aid the mentee so that he can find the right direction he should take in his career. The mentors will usually rely on their own experiences in the past and their knowledge about the industry. Because of this, mentoring can be a great way for a mentee to understand his career options and progress professionally in the future.

 

Most of the time, having a mentor will boost the confidence and the self-assurance of a mentee because he has all the support, encouragement, and guidance he needs. But the mentors should also take note that challenging the mentee to do his best is the best thing they can do so that the mentee will know how to handle difficult situations the right way in the future. 

 

As was mentioned earlier, a mentoring program is a two-way relationship; so likewise, the mentor can also expect that he will learn a lot from teaching and guiding another person. This will develop his management and leadership skills so he will develop empathy for people who is experiencing the same struggles he did in the past. 

 

Benefits of a Mentoring Program

 

A mentor will help a mentee believe in his or her capabilities as a person. Because of this, the self-confidence of the mentee will be improved and they will be more apt to accept more challenges in the future. The mentor would also enable the mentee to explore new ideas so that you can achieve a higher level of self-assurance in yourself and explore even greater highs of success. The mentoring program will be an opportunity for you to take a deeper look at yourself, your goals, your personality, and your life. This will enable you to know which the right path you should take in life is. 

 

Features You Should Look For

 

Of course, it is inevitable that some mentoring programs would be better than others because of the features and objectives provided by the specific program. For example, it would be better for you to get a mentor from outside the company so that you will get an unbiased view of what you should do regardless of who your boss is. The mentoring program would not be entirely effective if your mentor knows your boss as well. 

 

Likewise, the things that are discussed during the mentorship program should always remain confidential between the mentor and the mentee. And lastly, the mentorship program should be focused on the person. The mentor should be aware of the everyday challenges that his mentee faces so that these issues can be faced accordingly and enable the mentee to succeed in his career.

 

What to Avoid in Mentoring Programs

What is mentoring?

 

Before we can effectively look at the benefits you can derive from mentoring programs, it is first essential to understand what mentoring really is. Mentoring is simply the process wherein people are helped by a person or an organization for their personal and professional development. The person who is doing the supporting role is called the ‘mentor’ while the person being supported is called the ‘mentee’. This relationship may sometimes because complex because there are many types of mentors, just as there is many types of people. You can expect the mentor to be somewhere between being a ‘trusted friend’ and a ‘counselor’. But how exactly, can a mentor be defined? Well, we came up with several categories; your mentor will most likely fall into one of these categories. Read on to know what kind of mentor you should choose and which ones you should avoid:

 

1. The crowding mentor

 

This is the type of mentor who seems to be ignorant of the term, ‘personal space’. This mentor may not necessarily be your choice but he or she was assigned to you by your organization. 

 

2. The impossible mentor

 

Meanwhile, the impossible mentor is simply someone who you are not comfortable being with no matter what you do or what the mentor does. 

 

3. The younger mentor

 

In some cases, you might encounter a mentor who is younger than you. You might be more experienced than he is on work-related matters but this mentor was assigned to help you nonetheless. You find it difficult to take such a young mentor seriously though.

 

4. The ardent researcher

 

Your mentor would be someone who puts a big emphasis on academic research and theories. While this characteristic may not be a fault in itself, you might discover that it is hard to schedule important meetings with this mentor because he always outs research as his priority. In addition, this type of mentor might not believe that teaching the mentee is important so you are low in his priority. 

 

What does a mentor actually do?

 

So, after you know the type of mentors you should avoid, it is time to take a deeper look at what a good mentor should actually do:

 

·    Be available for a chat over the telephone or face-to-face contact

 

·    Be optimistic about the mentoring program and the development process of the mentees

 

·    Help mentees feel good about their achievements

 

·    Help mentees stick to deadlines and schedules

 

Know someone who can aid their mentees when there are cases that they can’t aid the mentees in their work plan. For example, they should help the mentees write realistic goals, deadlines, and the strategy on how these can be achieved. 

 

Give feedback on the work. They should give their opinions about the mentee’s performance so that the mentee will know which areas they should improve on. 

 

Help the mentees look at the feedback of other people. The mentees should take a serious look at the opinions of other people so they can determine their weaknesses. 

 

Make learning possible for the mentees. The mentors should provide the necessary resources such as time, effort, and space so that their mentees can learn even during their day-to-day work. 

 

Motivate their mentees. The simply act of asking how a person is doing is an act of asking how a person is doing can be motivation for them to improve their performance.