Want a career boost? Become a mentor
The benefits of having a work mentor are clear. Having regular access to an experienced professional who’s able to share their skills, knowledge and even contacts to guide someone to the next stage in their career can be really transformative.
Yet mentees aren’t the only ones to get something from the arrangement.
One study has suggested that mentors boost their chances of getting a pay rise by over 20% - and are actually six times more likely to be promoted. Those two facts on their own are probably compelling enough to join a mentoring programme, if you haven’t already. Here are some other ways helping someone else rise through the ranks will benefit your own career too.
Mentoring makes you a better manager
Helping your mentee recognise where they need support and guidance, and asking them the right questions to enable them to work out for themselves their next steps, develops your own coaching skills.
For your own team to succeed, you need empathy and the ability to actively listen (after all, doesn’t every employee want to feel their voice is heard and respected?) If you’ve forgotten how important these attributes are in your day-to-day work, developing a trusted relationship with a mentee will be a good reminder.
And depending on any comments they make, you may also get some clues about how others in the company view you. There’s great value in this for your own self-development as a manager.
Mentoring gives you time and space to self-reflect
Sessions with your mentee give them a chance to assess how they’re doing - but you get that time and space, too. That’s probably not a luxury you’d otherwise have time for during a busy working week.
As you guide someone through the professional challenges or tricky problems they’re facing, you’ll find yourself examining your own achievements and decisions objectively. What’s worked best for you so far in your career, and what hasn’t? When you took a particular decision in the past, would you take the same course of action again, and why/why not?
Encouraging your mentee to think about the attributes and strengths they have and how they can best develop them, will keep you focused on your next steps forward, too.
Mentoring boosts your reputation
Be a great mentor, and you’ll arm your mentee with the tools they need to do well - whether their goals are to succeed on a particular project, gain a crucial new skill, overcome a perceived weak area or have the confidence to put themselves forward for promotion.
Being able to grow and develop people, plus help them through any gnarly situations, shows strong management skills. And hopefully any significant contribution in your mentee’s success won’t go unnoticed.
In our work at RHL helping professional and technical candidates to find new roles, we also know that significant mentoring experience looks impressive to potential employees.
And finally, mentoring makes you feel good
The next best thing to progressing in your own career? Helping someone else grow, develop and move forward, too. The personal satisfaction you’ll get knowing you can actively help a less experienced colleague thrive is immense.
On a wider level it’s also a way to give back to the future of your company, and perhaps even sector at large. So when it comes to a mentoring arrangement, it’s clear that there are plenty of winners.