The Importance of Mentor

"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you."-Bob Proctor

Mentoring is when an individual shares his experience, skills, and knowledge to guide another to shape his future.

The purpose of mentoring is to advise, guide, or counsel a mentee to equip him to achieve his goals. A mentor provides support and feedback to a mentee in his charge.

We normally tend to associate the term "mentor" with a grey-haired individual who has years of experience in life. But contrary to this belief, a mentor can be of any age!

It is true that in most cases the mentor is older to the mentee especially in cases such as education mentoring or youth mentoring. But, many organizations are adopting reverse mentoring where the younger employees mentor the senior executives to train them in technology, social media, and the latest workplace trends.

It is not the age of the mentor that matters but the skills he has. When a mentee chooses a mentor, he should select one who has the skills and the relevant experience in the field of interest of the mentee. Besides, the mentor should have good communication skills and the mentee should be at ease with the mentor.

Why are coaching and mentoring important?

Coaching and mentoring have become important in recent times because they benefit both the mentor and mentee and the organization.

Coaching/mentoring in organizations helps in the career growth of employees. Mentoring strengthens the skills of the employees and helps identify the problems an employee might be facing. Mentoring enables the employees to overcome these hurdles and build a positive and concrete change in the individual.

Importance of having a mentor

The following quote beautifully captures the importance of mentoring-

You will find that for professional, personal or spiritual growth of an individual the empowering force has been mentoring!

Mentors offer mentees steady support, hope, guidance, and critical encouragement.

Mentoring has become important in different areas because there is felt a growing need to provide a focus and direction to individuals to grow in life and career.

Mentoring is done in business, education, for youth and even leaders, are mentored today.

Why are mentors important in business?

Business mentoring is when a successful businessman helps small business by providing him one-on-one advice and boosting his morale.

A survey by Kabbage reveals that nearly 92% of the respondents attribute their success to mentors. Mentorship plays an important role in businesses such as real estate, property management, and construction. This is mainly because these fields are network-driven and require technical training.

Starting a business is a difficult task and the new business owner may face several challenges at this stage. A business mentor has coped with similar challenges and succeeded. Therefore, he is the best person to guide and advice the mentee. The mentor can share his failures also with the mentee to guide him about the pitfalls that he should be wary about.

Mentors are important in business because they can offer advice and answer any query the mentee may have. Business mentors offer the mentees an alternative perspective to look at problems.

Business mentors, based on their experience, are aware of the key skills required for running a business successfully and can help the mentees develop them.

A business mentor can help a mentee expand his network through the contacts of the mentor for the growth of his business.

It is recommended that the mentee has a long-term relationship with his mentor as this will provide his consistency to maintain his business.

Business mentoring has been found to be beneficial to both the mentor and the mentee.

The mentee develops new skills and a larger network while for the mentor it serves as a method to give back which also proves to be a learning experience.

Importance of Mentoring in Youth

Mentoring in Youth helps them achieve their personal and academic goals. It boosts their confidence levels and enhances performance.

• Girls with mentors are two and a half times more likely to be successful in their academic performance.
• Boys who have mentors are three times less likely to suffer peer pressure and anxiety.
• Mentoring increases the likelihood of students attending college by 50%.
• Youth who are mentored are 46% less likely to use drugs.
• Youth with a mentor are 27% less likely to indulge in alcohol abuse.

Importance of Mentoring in Education

A mentor who encourages a student in his goals and dreams has been found to be responsible for the success of the student in his personal and professional life.

Faculty of the college mentoring students in college has been found to have a long-lasting impact on the students. Students who are mentored in college by their professors build long-term relationships with them. They remain in contact with their professors even after graduating. This is affirmed by the fact that nearly 71% of the students reported that they were in touch with their mentors one year after graduation.

Mentoring in education is more than making the students feel cared for and supported, it motivates students to work hard and achieve their goals.

Graduates who were strongly challenged during their student lives are 2.4 times more likely to feel that their education justifies its expense. Moreover, these students are 3.6 times better prepared for life.

Mentoring is not just relevant for students or youth, mentoring is even practiced for leaders in an organization. You may wonder when an individual is already functioning in the capacity of a leader, then why does he need mentoring?

Why is mentoring important in leadership?

All famous business leaders, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates have had mentors who have empowered them to succeed.

When you become a business leader there is a steep learning curve to be assumed for this role.

With a mentor, a leader has the opportunity to ask any kind of question whether simple or complicated to perform his new role.

A mentor for a leader works as a sounding board for ideas and provides unbiased feedback for any challenge the leader may face.

The mentor-mentee relationship between the leader and his mentor evolves with new challenges the leader faces. Mentoring helps at various stages of the leader’s journey.

Mentoring also enables leaders in decision making when faced with complicated problems.

A good mentor can shape a mentee to be successful in his professional and personal life. Mentors guide mentees to be good leaders rather than followers. Mentoring has a long-term impact on the mentees offering life and career-changing benefits.

If you have what it takes to be a mentor, join iConnectx! It is a platform that offers you an opportunity to mentor young executives. It offers a private bridge to connect the executives with the mentors.