SIWIKE tools : mentors

You probably shouldn’t call your mentors tools and at the same time, they are invaluable resources on your path to career success. Mentors are useful for many learn by asking questions and getting guidance on what to do. Mentors can take their own experiences, and history and provide possible paths and options for you to take for your own future.

Mentors, especially those who do aspire to be like, probably have gone through many of the same challenges and issues that you have. Their experience could be invaluable in accelerating or avoiding challenges that you are facing or might face in the future. With a mentor, what you might’ve taken 10 years to accomplish you might get done in 6. What might’ve taken you 12 months to do might only take you 3.

Mentors that are willing to open up their network and connections can be even more valuable as you’re not just leveraging the value of the mentor, we also leveraging the value of all the connections the mentor is connected with. 

Make it a two-way street 

One common challenge with finding a mentor is to find someone that is willing to take the time and put in the energy to provide you with guidance and insights. One way for you to find that person is to make sure that you make it a two-way street. And what I mean by that is for you to also look to deliver value to that person. First of all, being coachable and listening to their guidance and advice and more importantly doing what they recommend you to do. Often times seeing someone develop and the fruits of their labour can have enough value in itself to have a mentor want to continue the relationship.

You can also actually give value to a mentor. You might be wondering how you do that considering your mentor is probably 510 or more years ahead of you. What value could you possibly bring to them? That’s a good question. Generally, it’s you can provide your experience: which might be some things that you’ve done that they have yet to do. Often times the “young kids” are more savvy with social media or technology or current trends and can suggest ways for their mentor to take advantage of them within their own work and life. 

Perhaps you could connect them with another mentor or connection that you’ve come across as well. Your mentor’s network is probably quite strong, however, yours might have a little bit more breadth and variety and you might encounter people that your mentor might not normally interact with. Your connection could potentially add value to the mentor. Make sure that you do a little bit of diligence and thinking on how exactly you would see them adding value. Not just make a connection for connection’s sake. 

You could also provide them with resources. Articles, podcasts, blog posts, videos, courses, books, whatever it is. If It added value to you then it might be able to add value to them. Suggested and perhaps they know the author or creator, or it might be outside of their radar.

At the very least you can spend the time to research or do things that help them progress towards their goals. Spend a few hours, your weekend, multiple weekends to see if you can come up with solutions to any challenges or opportunities that your mentor my face. That is probably the least that you could do for all the helpful guidance and advice that they provided you. And if you can do a lot of that with the intent of adding value to them not just giving them something for the sake of it, then the mentoring relationship will be alive and healthy for years to come.

Invest the time in looking for a mentor. For a guide on how to find a mentor, take a look here