A couple of years ago I got involved in a mentoring program at my office. Initially I wasn’t sure what to think of it, and I really didn’t think they did the greatest job of matching interests, but overall the outcome was good. Initially I was mentor to one other, though currently I have two people that I mentor. Here is what I’ve learned in doing this.
Mentoring in a way is giving back some of what you learned in the past to help someone who may be less experienced in an area build themselves up more quickly. This includes not only teaching, but also going over failures you may have had in the past, and what you learned from those failures. Being open to admitting the mistakes made in the past is not only valuable to the person you mentor. It can also also help to give them some confidence, knowing that everyone makes mistakes and not to be afraid to try something new.
Mentoring can help to build your organizational skills. In preparing for a session, I will work out a plan of the topic I plan to go over. Planning ahead and having most of what I plan to go over ready helps to make the time more effective for both of us. At times there are topics that will lead off of what I had prepared for, but even then most of the items stay close to what was planned.
Mentoring can help you to grow both in what you are trying to share and as a leader. I have had a number of times where I have been asked something I don’t know, or asked to go over an area that I may know a little about, but it isn’t an area that I see as a strength. In some cases, if I know someone else who has a greater knowledge of the subject, I will refer them to that person, or see if I can find some resources from that person. In some cases where I may be a bit familiar, it forces me to review some of the topics I may not use as often. Even when I work at this, I still run across things that I may not always know. In that case I don’t hide that I don’t know,but will work with them to try and find the answer.
I think mentoring is not only good for the person that you may be mentoring, but also helps you to grow as well. In the time that I have been mentoring, this has challenged me to grow both in technical and leadership skills.
Leave a Reply