The Lifelong Impact of Mentorship

“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey.

A mentor relationship can be one of the most inspirational and profound relationships to be in. The right mentor can help you grow and advance in your career, as you navigate new territories. However, the benefits of mentorship extend far beyond this.

The goal of a mentorship is to help you move with confidence, support and encouragement as you progress towards your career goals – whatever they may be!

Whether you’re starting a new job, vying for a promotion, or just navigating some unchartered waters – a mentor can provide experience, advice and connections to help you grow! All of these things can go a long way in helping you succeed.Support and encouragement as you go through your career is the biggest benefit of receiving mentoring in the workplace. Without this, you may lack the will and drive to accelerate in your career.

A mentor will guide you to develop your career skills along the way. A great mentor will instil greater self-confidence, awareness, communication skills and encourage self-reflection.

These behavioural skills are important given the relationships you have with your co-workers and colleagues makes a fundamental difference to both your performance and enjoyment of work. It’s not always easy to identify gaps where you could improve behaviourally. Yet, self-awareness can allow you to constantly improve in the workplace. Your mentor can provide such behavioural feedback, guiding you along the way to learn how to better communicate and work with others.

This is not to say that only mentees receive the benefits of this relationship! While mentors often enjoy the feeling of “giving back” – the benefits truly do reach far beyond this! In terms of personal development, mentors are exposed to an entirely new experience that allows them to develop greater listening skills and improve their leadership skills. Exposure to a new and often different perspective can provide new ideas and techniques that can be implemented to develop new strategies and solutions. At the end of the day, no one can argue that growing your personal network is a bad thing. To do so through a mentor relationship allows for the unique opportunity to support someone else in the industry, while simultaneously learning from them. This is where the true strength of a mentor relationship lies.