Why a mentor will enhance your career

Are you looking to progress your career? Unsure how to move to the next level? You may want to consider finding a mentor.  A "mentor" is an experienced individual who shares their knowledge, advice and real-life examples with someone looking to benefit from their experience, or "mentee."

Seeking a mentor can help encourage your career development as well as your personal development. Check out the top five benefits of having a mentor:

Connect and network

A mentor can provide you with access to key industry contacts that may be interested in what your organisation has to offer. This could be introducing you to new clients which can bring future benefit to your role and organisation. Having access to new industry contacts can also offer you with additional skills and advice that you may not have previously known or had access to.

Preparation is key. It’s important for both sides to do their homework and prepare outside of meeting hours. That way both parties can gain the most from the sessions, and they will be able to set achievable actions for moving forward and assessing what may or may not be working.

Provide you with knowledge

As you navigate the next step in your career having a mentor can give you some real-life insights into their experiences. A mentor can help you get up to speed quicker on learnings and advice they have gained throughout their career and provide you with expertise to not make the same mistakes. Listening is important when it comes to a mentor-mentee relationship so you can put into practice what they teach you.

Set SMART goals for yourself

Your mentor will help you to set goals against agreed time frames. Together you should set realistic (SMART) goals that are both clear and achievable as to provide you with a clear path of progression and outline what success looks like.

Therefore, what information you share with your mentor will be important to ensure you are on the right track for your personal and professional development.

As you progress through your mentoring journey - it is also important to celebrate wins along the way. Some goals will be big, some smaller but it’s important to celebrate success when it comes. Your end target might seem a long way of but it’s the little wins along the way that will get you closer to your goals!

Keep you on track

One of the benefits of a mentor is having someone to keep you on track and remind you that you have the skills to succeed. Your mentor will help motivate you and provide an unbiased point of view should you start to feel unsure or off-track against the goals you have agreed and set.

A trusted voice outside of work

At some point you may come across a work situation where you need advice and asking a person who has been there before, like your mentor, is going to give you the best insights. Your mentor may not have had the same job as you previously but will have experience in office situations, the dynamic of work colleagues and making changes in careers.

A mentor can help you get up to speed quicker on learnings and advice they have gained throughout their career and provide you with expertise to not make the same mistakes. Listening is important when it comes to a mentor-mentee relationship so you can put into practice what they teach you.

It is important to establish a time to meet and stick to that time. Your mentor-mentee relationship must have mutual respect and trust to be successful. This usually starts with committing to a time, sticking to that time and being open to adjustments if needed.