These soft skills are essential for career success. In a study of peer mentoring relationships at the University of Arizona, they found that formal mentoring programs led to the development of the following soft skills in students:.
They also found that they experienced increased self-efficacy and the ability to seek support when needed because of the peer-to-peer mentoring they engaged in.
From this, we can gather that the ability to lean on someone else for guidance, support and to have one-on-one conversations with them will lead to the development of soft skills. Along with developing leadership skills, having a mentor to advise and guide you can increase your confidence and help develop problem-solving skills.
Regarding confidence, research has tied having a mentor to an overall increase in emotional health. Mentors offer a different perspective that can be instrumental in changing bad habits or unhelpful ways of thinking.
The result of this is an increase in wellbeing and confidence. Likewise, mentors can serve as a sounding board for mentees to test ideas out. This leads to a better ability to problem solve.
Through mentorship, mentees can expand their network and gain access to other people in various ways. Mentors can share their connections directly with mentees. With more work experience, mentors are in the ideal position to offer insight for mentees. They hold valuable knowledge that can be crucial in helping a mentee uncover opportunities and solve problems. Mentors can guide a mentee by providing instructions on how to do specific tasks or acquire useful skills. They can also share tips on overcoming obstacles or challenges to career development.
This kind of mentoring relies on the vast experience of the mentor. The advice is sound. Here are some more ways that you can find the right mentor. The role of your manager or supervisor is to make sure that the team meets its goals.
But they are not entirely focused on your career journey. It gives you a different perspective that can be beneficial. A mentor will ideally have something in common with you.
For example, they may work in the same industry. To find a good match, expand your contacts. Joining groups and professional communities in your field can help you grow your network, leading to discovering an ideal mentor. You can also use apps like Shapr to digitally match with folks who are in similar industries. Structured workplace mentoring programs can help you connect with talented mentors at work. By tracking progress, the mentor helps the mentee stay focused and on track towards completing them.
It can also ensure that the mentee does not forget about the goals they have set. Knowing that someone else is watching can serve as motivation, as the mentee likely does not want to let the mentor down by failing to meet goals.
When the mentee finds themselves struggling to perform their job or reach a goal, they can turn to their mentor for support. This encouragement can motivate them to keep moving forward despite challenges. A mentor can also identify and express their mentee's strengths to instill confidence in them.
Having a strong sense of confidence can make the mentee less likely to give up on their goals. A mentor can help build their mentee's professional network. When the mentee identifies professional or personal goals, the mentor can connect them to potential opportunities or individuals who can help them. As the mentor typically has more industry experience or a higher-level career, these connections can be valuable for career advancement. When an individual has ideas, they can use a mentor as a resource to discuss or try them.
The mentor can provide unbiased advice or opinions using their relevant knowledge and experience. With these insights, the mentee can better understand what steps to take and whether to pursue the idea or walk away. Similarly, a mentor can also listen and advise them on daily concerns, such as workplace conflicts. Trust represents a core element of mentoring relationships.
The mentee must trust that the mentor has their best interests in mind and will provide accurate and honest guidance. The business world can also be competitive, so they need to rely on one another to keep confidential information private when necessary. Communicating regularly and following through on their promises demonstrate two methods of establishing trust in these relationships. Related: 14 Ways to Build Trust in the Workplace. A trusting mentorship relationship enables honest feedback.
By establishing trust, the mentee understands that constructive criticism aims to build their professional growth rather than make them feel bad. Mentors can identify weaknesses and advise them on ways to improve.
Because this is a professional relationship, the mentor plays an objective role. Meanwhile, a friend may hesitate to identify the mentee's weaknesses because they do not want to appear critical. For individuals just starting their career, a mentor can help set guidelines on professional expectations.
For example, they may clarify the priorities of the role and proper workplace behaviors. These guidelines can help the mentee establish appropriate work habits that enable them to focus and perform their job successfully.
These effective work habits can help them be more productive and impress their supervisors. When possible, individuals should choose mentors who have the experience relevant to their profession or goals. When mentors convey their successes, the mentee can use them as an example to strive toward and copy the steps they took. Mentors can also share the mistakes they made along their journeys. The mentee benefits because they learn lessons about the mistakes' negative impacts but do not have to suffer the consequences themselves.
Learning about these experiences can also help prepare the mentee for the challenges they can expect to face and provide demonstrable advice on how to overcome them. Mentorship typically occurs due to networking or company programs, so mentors do not seek payment. They offer to serve this role because they genuinely want to help the other individual grow and establish a more authentic and personal connection.
The lack of payment also opens up mentorship for all types of people, rather than restricting this resource to only those who can afford it. The following list represents some of the beneficial reasons to become a mentor:. Your interactions with a mentee offer numerous opportunities to practice and build interpersonal skills, such as communication, active listening, empathy and patience.
Communication is especially essential to mentorship, as you may meet regularly to discuss the mentee's goals, ideas or concerns and provide instructions or advice. Beyond mentorship, having strong interpersonal skills can help you develop relationships and collaborate more effectively.
When working with a mentee, you share relevant knowledge gained through your career or experiences. You advise them or demonstrate how to perform specific tasks. For example, you may teach your mentee negotiation methods and then practice with them. While the purpose is to help the mentee grow professionally, sharing this knowledge reinforces it within yourself. You may teach them skills you no longer use regularly, so this practice can help you rebuild or strengthen them. You can introduce your mentee to contacts to help build their network.
In return, they may have relevant or interesting connections to share with you. Networking can aid your career, as these connections can lead to professional and advancement opportunities. Several studies show that diverse workforces are connected to higher revenue. The studies revealed that organisations where women are given senior management roles have a 10 percent increase in cash flow returns on investment. McKinsey found that organizations that are more racial and ethical diverse are 35 percent more likely to see higher revenues.
If your organization wants to create a more equal and inclusive workspace , having a workplace mentoring program is essential. Mentorship allows employees to interact, learn from each other, and grow from the experience. A mentoring program is a way for organisations to give employees the opportunity to be a mentor or receive mentorship from a senior leader. Mentoring in the workplace is not just a feel-good initiative.
There is a plethora of research to support the business advantages that mentoring in the workplace has. Mentoring programs can be a lot of work, especially if you are doing it manually. A good mentoring program aligns with overarching business goals. Traditional mentoring programs usually pair senior leaders with more junior ones to support and help them grow within the organization. The goal for this type of mentoring may be to increase promotion rates within the organization.
There are other types of mentoring programs with different objectives. The table below outlines different objectives for mentoring programs and their corresponding key result:. To promote your mentoring program focus on getting leadership on board first.
If leaders promote the program and speak to its benefits and importance there will be a trickle-down effect on the rest of the organisation. Leveraging the enthusiasm of early adopters or popular mentors will drive word of mouth and excitement about the program. Many mentorship programs start with a kick-off party whether virtual or in-person where participants can see everyone else in the program. Mentees can scope out potential mentors and see that they are part of a larger company wide initiative which will encourage them to maintain the relationship.
Finding mentors and mentees is the most exciting part of the process, but can also be stressful. It can become a logistical nightmare to manually pair up mentors and mentees when your program grows beyond 10 mentors and 10 mentees.
There are many advantages to using mentoring software. To create meaningful pairings between mentors and mentees identify qualities of good mentees and mentors and encourage them in all participants.
Mentors and mentees with these qualities will easily build a relationship that is mutually beneficial. To build a successful mentoring relationship you have to focus on each individual's goals for what they want to get out the experience. If a mentee wants to transition into a new department, say for example from marketing to sales, you may pair up the mentee with the head of sales and then support their relationship by encouraging them to talk through how to make that transition.
For that reason, providing questions that the mentee can ask their mentor is very helpful in shaping the types of discussions they have. Encourage them to ask questions like:.
Successful workplace mentoring programs are built on the backs of successful mentoring relationships. More importantly, participants and the organization will get the most benefits from a mentorship that has a strong relationship at its core. Reporting on your mentoring program is essential because you want to capture the results of the relationships you helped develop and present that to stakeholders like leadership or other employees who are considering if a mentoring relationship is worth it.
To track feedback and measure your workplace mentoring program Together provides feedback forms at the end of each session for both the mentor and mentee to fill out. This gives meaningful qualitative feedback for administrators to understand if the program is working and what to change if necessary. Important factors to keep in mind when evaluating the feedback from participants and monitoring your program include:. To ensure a successful workplace mentoring program administrators should keep their finger on the pulse of all pairings and make adjustments as needed.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, virtual mentoring can be more effective because it requires less logistic hassle like deciding where to meet and what to bring. Instead, mentors and mentees can commit to a weekly or monthly schedule of conference calls where they check-in and dive into giving and receiving mentorship. One of the primary difficulties of remote or hybrid workers is isolation.
To combat this, companies will organize group events like happy hours or games nights. But after a day full of Zoom meetings many employees dread another call with the whole team.
Zoom fatigue is a common challenge for virtual workplaces. Instead, companies should implement virtual mentoring for hybrid workplaces to organize one-on-one mentoring relationships. They can speak to one person rather than many. Additionally, in a one-on-one mentoring relationship the conversations are more meaningful and refreshing.
0コメント