There are many different ways mentoring can be done; there is a formal and informal way; and most people have multiple mentors. You will likely already have informal mentors in your circle; they are often people we socialize with, they want to see us do well with our life, health, family, etc.
Most people don’t often have professional or formal mentors; these mentor relationships are with people who know us professionally and want to help us achieve professional and career outcomes.
Both types of mentors serve a different purpose, but are both critical to us being a success.
Professional
This type of mentor is sort out in an office environment; they can be a supervisor or someone in a different field to us. These mentors are generally the type we ask for them to mentor us; we need to work out what it is we want to learn or achieve by being mentored by this person. Sometimes a professional mentor can be for a season; others are almost a mentor for life. If you are lucky you might find you can both mentor each other in different ways.
Keeping it real
You need to be somewhat close with your mentor, at the beginning it is good to get a general overview of who this person is; sometimes you might not know a lot about this person in terms of life experience and their road. It is also important that you share your journey, this also helps them learn lots about your personality and sometimes helps them to understand how you see the world.
Environment
It is good to find a location which is relaxed and you can talk, but also doesn’t need to be in a private office or boardroom. At first its best to have a little ‘get to know you’ for both, then discussions of what you want to achieve from them mentoring you. By doing this early on in the ‘relationship’ you can establish if they can help you get what you want.
Later on in the sessions you can look to a more ‘secluded’ and ‘equipped’ area, preferably something with a whiteboard, or similar this will help you and your mentor to ‘roadmap’ your plans.
How do I know what I want from my mentor?
This is not necessarily you telling them what you specifically want, unlike in a social informal mentor-type relationship you tell your mate “I want to quit smoking” and they might ask, “when?” then you start to ‘roadmap’ your quitting plan and they then hold you to doing that. You might think your idea is crazy, and too far out there, but if you find a good mentor they can break down the big goal into smaller steps and help you to actively achieve it.
If you want to know more you can read my article on knowing what I can offering in mentoring, or mentoring in the workplace there will be more in this series to come.
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