One of the best things you can do at any point in your career is to find a mentor. This is someone who has been around the block longer than you have and is willing to act as a sounding board for your ideas and aspirations. Ideally this is a person willing to be honest with you and tell you when you are wrong. Ultimately this is someone who can help you take the next step in life and your career.
As you may have noticed by now, most advice is free, and most advice is worth every penny. Everyone has an opinion about what you should or should not do. The key point is, very few people know your situation or what you are trying to accomplish. The advice they give is colored with their own goals, prejudices, and personal agendas. You may catch a few nuggets of gold here and there but more often then not the advice is of little use.
This is where a mentor comes in. The quality of your relationship with your mentor is as much dependent on you as it is your mentor. To cultivate a good relationship where value can be derived you must do the following.
- Be clear about what you are trying to accomplish. It is hard to help someone without direction.
- Meet with your mentor regularly in person or over the phone. Let them know what is going on in your life. Let them know your problems and concerns. Let them know what is going well.
- Be open to criticism, the whole point of this relationship is to improve yourself. If you were perfect, you wouldn’t still be reading this blog.
- Identify 1 item that you should work on and create a plan to achieve your goal. Don’t work on 2 or 3 issues at the same time, To many personal changes at the same time is never a recipe for success.
- Respect your mentor’s time. Always be prepared about what you want to discuss and try to send it through before you meet.
- Remember why you have a mentor. Calling your mentor constantly and emailing them for every problem is not helpful. You are trying to grow and learn so you can handle things yourself. Don’t use your mentor as a crutch to prevent you from achieving your goals.
Many companies have mentor programs. If they don’t, ask hr to suggest a mentor. Talk to people in the industry and see if they can recommend someone to you.
Having a mentor is a huge help in keeping yourself focused on improving your life.
