Do you need a Mentor?

Today, information is accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Google, YouTube, eBooks and social media have made getting a hold of data easy. If you can access anything you want to, you might be wondering "Why do I need a mentor?" The answer to all my questions is only a few button clicks away.

In many situations that is true. But, there will never be a complete substitute for mentoring relationship to help you grow personally and financially.

One – The Internet doesn’t talk back.

It is true there is virtually no question you can’t find the answer to on the internet. But life isn’t only about data analysis or hard facts. Life is variable and throws curves balls. Even with all the information, we might not always know what the right move is.

With a mentor, you have someone to reach out to. A mentor is someone who has already been through it and lived to tell the tale. And if they are a good mentor, they came out the other end successful. When at a crossroads in life or professionally, having a more experienced person you can sit down and have a conversation with about choices can be invaluable.

Two – Increase Knowledge

Not all knowledge is of equal value. Data has different value depending on your profession. For example, knowledge about Javascript or Python is important to a computer programer...but for someone looking to move up the ranks as a headhunter for tech companies, it isn’t vital to know how to code.

It is impossible to learn everything there is to know. The trick of healthy career development is to learn the exact pieces of vital information that are necessary for advancement. It’s not always clear what that vital information is. A mentor can direct you. A mentor probably has already sifted through mountains of information, discarded what is useless and tabbed the important things. They can hand this over to you, sparing you exhausting and lonely research.

Three – Encouragement

This might sound sappy. We might not think we need encouragement...but we do. We might think that we can tough out the rough times, endure the lost opportunities and keep pushing forward, but the truth is finding the strength to continue forward after losses is extremely difficult to do alone.

There is no such thing as a 100% smooth ride to achieve a goal. There are always setbacks. There are always unseen pitfalls. A mentor can point these out to you so you can avoid them. A mentor can also dig you out and keep your eye on the mountain when you stumble.

Four – Unbiased Opinions and Constructive Criticism

One the best parts of American Idol, is watching people who think they are the next superstar get up on stage and get shredded by the judges. I’m not advocating invalidating people for chasing their dreams. But if I was adamant about going on American Idol I would really appreciate if someone stopped me before I fell on my face on national TV. I often wonder why friends or family don’t stop some of these people who are obviously going to embarrass themselves, don’t stop them.

Friends and family don’t always give unbiased criticism. They often hold back the truth for fear of hurting our feelings. A mentor plays a different role. A mentor wants to see you do well and that means they will tell you when one of your ideas isn’t any good. They can tell you when your work isn’t up to par and can coach you to improve.

A mentor won’t be cruel, but honest. And on your journey to achieve your goals, the honest opinion of an experienced mentor is worth its weight in gold.

Five – Goal Setting

If you have ever set a goal with a deadline...and then missed it only to reset the deadline...and miss it again you aren’t alone. Practically everyone I know has done this (including me on more than one occasion). It’s a lot easier to achieve a goal on deadline if someone is holding you accountable. The simple fact that a mentor will check in and ask you if you are making deadlines can motivate you make deadlines.

Long term goals are achieved by making small steps one after the other. Mansions and empires are built brick by brick. A mentor can enforce that deadlines are met over and over helping pave the way to achieving professional goals in shorter amounts of time.

Six – Fresh Perspective

Tunnel Vision and Focus are vital to achieving goals and advancing professionally. But too much of this can make us blind to other options or alternatives. A mentor can point out new views and fresh opinions. A mentor is not a therapist. Think of a mentor as a guide who can show easier ways to go about doing things because they have already walked the path. Mentors can help you most when they have achieved success in an area you striving towards. You might be amazed at the doors they open.

Seven – Networking

There is no such thing as a network being too big. No one ever made it to the top of their respective industry and then said they wished they networked less. The larger the circle of people you know, the more opportunities there will be for success.

A mentor has years of experience you don’t have. They likely have a much bigger network or at least their network contains key people that you need to meet. With the help of a mentor, you will get the opportunity to network with people you would never would have access to previously.

Mentor Resources can help any company or government agency to leverage technology to create tailored career development programs that are cost-effective. Our mentoring software - Wisdom Share is a cloud-based program that is simple and comes with guided workflows. Included are tools for administrators to attract, enroll, connect, and guide participants. We also provide analytics to ensure you can monitor your employee development program and easily see ROI metrics.

Reach out to us today for a Free Demonstration of our software.