The Importance Of Mentoring

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A mentor is a personal, portable, no-cost resource to help you set and meet your unique goals. Mentoring is an explicit one-to-one learning relationship between a person who wants to improve job or career skills and a person who can help him or her do that. Mentors are much more than "go-to" people. Mentors are champions of learning. Mentors take a position of high interest and investment in another's development. They want to mentor. They share knowledge, encouragement, guidance and feedback about job content and organizational culture. They advocate for their mentees' successes. Mentoring provides encouragement and structure to support the mentee. In the ideal, mentoring and being mentored is business as usual.

Why should you have one? You're …show more content…

Find people who can offer you what you want, whom you admire, and who will feel honored at your request. One fundamental characteristic that any mentor must have is a passion for helping others succeed. Don't be shy. Ask your colleagues to help you conduct your search. It's similar to a job search - you want the best match possible. You define what "best match" looks like. Think about trust, communication styles and differences in perspective, in addition to career-related qualities. You may find your mentor at the desk next to yours, or online in a different geographic location. You may find more than one mentor at a time, depending on your goals.

3. Contract for the mentoring relationship. The Number One reason mentoring works is because the learning experience is shaped exactly to you and what you need. You and your mentor together define that shape.

There are two parts to the learning contract: role definition, and the specific learning goals. Sometimes the learning contract is written, sometimes verbal. Always, it is explicit. Because the mentoring process is a work in progress, clarity and structure keep it moving ahead. It is a framework within which you and your mentor can be creative and forward-thinking. It gives enough structure to keep the process focused and moving, with built-in flexibility to continuously assess and improve. Without such structure, the mentoring process can get off track and become less than optimally

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