Those Who Lead, Mentor!
Great leaders are made, not born, similarly this can be said about mentors, but the association doesn’t end there. For many reasons, successful mentors and strong leaders rely on the same set of skills to get ahead. Mentoring is a developmental partnership through which one person shares knowledge, skills, information, and perspective to foster the personal and professional growth of someone else. Mentoring can be delivered to an Individual or to a group.
Qualities of a Mentor
To become a mentor, you must be:
• Available: Spend at least 15 minutes a week helping your mentees, answering questions and reviewing their progress.
• Patience: People learn at different speeds and some need more guidance than others, good mentors, are patience and work with the pace of their mentees.
• Sensitive: Tact and diplomacy are vital, as a mentor, always keep comments motivating and encouraging.
• Respectful: Each person is unique. Respect your mentee’s wishes and don’t push too hard.
• Flexible: Life happens. Always remember that not everything goes according to plan and you may have to allow for last-minute changes.
• Supportive: Show confidence in your mentee, and be supportive to their ideas.
• Knowledgeable: You must have good knowledge and must have experience, to support your mentee with challenges that may arise.
• Confident: A mentor should come across as self-assured and friendly, eager to help.
• Listening: By being a good listener, you enable the mentee to articulate any problem and sort things out.
• Concerned: You must truly want to help others.
Mentoring not only helps mentee, but it also helps mentors to learn to serve as a leader; it is a way to pay back; to review and validate, you have accomplished; to feel satisfied, and moreover it helps mentors to energize, and is a source of self-motivation to raise the bar, and achieve new heights.
All the best…