Table of content:
Why mentorship?
What can a mentor help you with, and what to expect?
Which criteria should you consider finding a mentor?
How to find a mentor?
Intro
No matter if you’re starting your career or already have years of experience, support for your growth can help boost it forward.
Passing courses, attending events, and dealing with work challenges is a great ways to learn. On the other hand, you can approach people who have already achieved your aspiring goals, and had a couple of mistakes, and with that, you can accelerate your growth or your business growth faster.
Why mentorship?
Recent studies show that of those with a mentor, 97% say they are valuable. 83% of employees believe mentoring and coaching are the most effective tool of their learning and development system in the company.
Quite a high rate, isn`t it?
A most valid reason why such learning helps is that mentors can help to see outside of the box of the current situation, be a support system in personal transformation, and soft skills development, and decrease a feeling of loneliness in your challenges. Moreover, most of the time this is a person who achieved the goal you`re striving for and can help you with guidance to the most effective path for your aspirations.
Unfortunately, 85% of professionals do not have a mentor for several reasons:
they aren`t aware of the opportunity
they do not have mentoring and coaching as a part of the learning and development system
Managers are too busy or lack the knowledge to make mentoring their employees more effectively
do not know how to approach the mentor.
If you are one of the 85%, let’s find out how!
How can a mentor help you, and what can you expect?
Right expectations can help you build a long-lasting mentorship relationship and make it beneficial for both sides.
There are some things that a mentor can help you with:
Career path development
Support in dealing with your current work challenges
Give another perspective on your business
Support and professional feedback
Personal and professional development
And many more!
What should you not expect from this relationship?
Answering all your questions.
Any person you interact with is a human and cannot give you all the answers. The experience of all people is different, and at some points, you will provide some solutions to your mentor. Do not be frustrated if the mentor is stuck with the question or advice you asked.
Take responsibility for your decisions.
Yep, you read it correctly. Do not expect someone to decide whether you need to quit your current job, build up your career path, or should you pivot your start-up.
Be ready that you need to take responsibility for your decisions. A mentor gives you one more perspective on your situation.
Be the only one who drives your relationship.
Mentors are also interested in your development but do not expect that he/she will check you up every week, read your mind, and propose solutions. Make it two-sided interaction and be proactive. If you need anything, speak up and ask for help directly.
Ok, now what? How do I find one?
Hold on here. Before searching for your support system, define why you need a mentor. What do you want to achieve with the support of another person?
There are some preparation tasks before you reach out to someone.
1. What are the goal I want to achieve?
It should be a SMART goal that can help you and your mentor track the progress and define the best path.
An excellent example of the goals are:
I want to become a Senior product manager by the end of the year 2023.
I want to increase the conversion rate by X for Y products which is 80% OKR realization for Q1.
I want to land a new job in start-up series B in the EdTech domain by May 2023.
2. What do I need help with?
For example, I do not feel comfortable measuring and working on user retention or lack the leadership qualities to manage my team.
And many more. That doesn`t mean you need to be bad at something, but you see that this is the strength you want to strengthen even more. You cannot be an ideal product manager/founder/team manager. You`re the human, first of all :)
3. What mentor do I need?
Describe your persona. Not everyone in your sphere could be a great fit with their expertise or even a good fit for you as a personality. You’re not a friend to everyone, right?
These questions might help you to understand who will be the best for you:
Take the goal you set for yourself and list the skills your mentor needs to help you. For example, you want to strengthen your analytical and leadership skills. Try to find someone who has this aspect as a strength or has plenty of experience in it
The sphere and domain can be significant. Is it B2B or B2C? Do you need someone in your niche or want to learn from people from other domains?
Is time zone or language essential for you?
Do you want/able to pay for your mentor?
Do you have any other essential criteria?
4. What are your expectations?
Nearly every mentor will ask about your expectations. Not only goal-wise but also more operational. It can be anything:
the frequency of communication
type of communication
type of feedback - how`d you like to hear it/ in which format
Do you want more discussions or case studies?
Anything vital for you in this relationship needs to be highlighted. Prepare it beforehand.
Conclusion
Getting advice from people who have already achieved the goals you want is one of the best ways to accelerate your progress in it.
Mentorship and consultancy are something that can boost it but make sure you prepare before:
Do you know what a goal I want to achieve is?
Do you understand what you need help with?
Do you clarify what mentor/consultant you want to have?
Craft the expectation toward your relationship.
Remember what you cannot expect from a mentor:
Knowing everything and having all the answers to your questions
Taking responsibility for your decisions
Be the only one who initiates meetings, calls, or crafts your relationship by themselves
Have good luck finding your support system on your journey! :)