If you’ve ever left your fuel-forsaken car to trudge uphill a mile to what you thought was the closest gas station — only to discover later there was one a block downhill — you’ve experienced something close to what it’s like to grow your career without a mentor. You can do it yourself but it’s faster, easier and more efficient when you know what’s down the road.
Leaders still entertaining the idea of forming a workplace mentoring relationship don’t have far to look to discover surprising results on par with the success of the well-known Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) child-mentoring program. Just like BBBS strengthens children and our communities, workplace-mentoring programs can strengthen professionals and grow their careers, which in turn grow a successful business.
Survey results reported in The Journal of Organizational Behavior reveal that mentees indicated increased job satisfaction, more career opportunities, greater workplace recognition and a higher promotion rate than their non-mentored peers. This accords well with one company’s definition of career mentors: “Business mentors lever their knowledge and experience by providing advice, counsel, network contacts and political and cultural know-how, together with ongoing personal support and encouragement. The business mentor’s interest is to foster the career development of the mentee. ”
To take your career mentor relationship from textbook definition to reality, however, you’ll need to take purposeful action.
Action Items
Regard your mentor as a blank check. Yes, that’s right. Loyola Marymount University management professor and mentoring expert Ellen Ensher, recommends viewing your mentor as a blank check — which you have to write. Stay in touch, ask questions, and send thank-you notes to keep building the relationship. Your mentoring relationship is exactly what you make of it.
Be honest about your weaknesses and be willing to hear a new point of view. You can’t benefit from advice with your eyes shut and your ears closed. You don’t have to do exactly what your mentor advises, but listen with an open-mind and you may be surprised by how much you can learn. Teachability is a must-have trait to have for getting the most from your mentoring relationship.
Embrace the informal. If a formal career relationship seems too manufactured or stifling, consider asking your manager for the names of two or three experienced colleagues you can go to whenever you need their input. Likewise, you can also give your name out as someone to help new hires.
Get multiple mentors. Who says you have to have just one mentor? If you anticipate using a lot of your mentor’s time, be courteous and enlist a few more brains to pick. Lois Zachary, the president of Arizona-based Leadership Development Services and author of The Mentee’s Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You agrees and espouses that the key advantage of this is that you’ll gain multiple points of view.
Take your time. Remember that your mentoring relationship is like any other relationship. It takes time. You and your mentor are constantly growing and learning how to help each other. Put forth consistent effort, but don’t rush the natural growing process.