Week 6 Post 2: Mentorship

For our next class presentation Colleen and I are going to present on the topic of Mentors and Mentorship. I started to do some research on the topic and I found an article in which the author gives advice on what kinds of mentors to look for and how to use your mentor as a helpful guide.

The five pieces of advice are as follows:

1. A good mentor breaks you out of your comfort zone. There will always be people around to comfort you, but a good mentor is one that encourages you to keep improving and pushes you into new experiences

2. A good mentor knows your personal strengths and weaknesses. Try to improve upon your weaknesses by finding the mentor who will complement them. You don’t always have to be exactly similar to a mentor to get along. In fact, finding someone with different skillsets than you will be helpful since you’ll have even more to learn from this person.

3. Know how to utilize your mentor. You’ve finally found your mentor leader, but now what? A lot of time, mentees asked the mentors, “what do you think I should be doing?” or “what are the hottest trends in companies?” Those are the wrong questions to ask as a start before sharing who you are.

4. Perception vs. reality. Your vision might differ from the reality of things — be specific and know how to make the most of your mentors by asking those hard questions. If your relationship with your mentor still doesn’t align with what your goals, try to take the leap of faith by asking your mentor if there is anyone else you should connect with or network with in a certain field.

5. Don’t feel like you have to find someone in your industry or in the same location. And yes, you should have both men and women as your mentors. Find those who are very different from you because you’ll get the best range of possibilities and perspectives. Also, remember that in this new digital world, you could foster a mentor-mentee relationship via Skype, Face time and other virtual online tools. This will help you find an even wider range of mentors to complement your work and give you fresh insights.

I believe that these are good pieces of advice for a young person looking to pursue a career in any field. I also believe that every person beginning their career should have a mentor that they can go to for advice or help, this will allow you to develop into a better professional but also a better person in general. It is important to find a mentor that you can just talk to when you might be feeling down or are going through tough times in life.