Mentorship can transform your life. Staying proactive about your relationship with a mentor is important to remain in the driver’s seat of your career development.
A good mentor can make a huge impact on the way your career shapes up. No matter what stage in life you are at it is more than worthwhile to nurture and maintain relationships with your mentors. They can help you drive your career and empower you to explore options that you may not consider, give you access to new opportunities and help you navigate unexpected challenges.
Let’s discuss how we can get to connect with a mentor of our choice.
Ask for the first meeting.
Everyone agrees that mentors are important, but barely 35% actually end up getting one. The main reason is that most are afraid to ask due to the fear of being rejected.
Reaching out to someone you admire, could be intimidating if you do not know him personally. It helps to remember that the people you admire have likely had many mentors in their careers who have helped them shape their careers. It is quite possible that they would be too willing to mentor others to reach their potential if only they were asked to do so.
the best way to start this process would be to send them an email, sharing a few things you admired and then introducing yourself along with the reason for reaching out and what you hope to learn from them.
Nurture the relationship.
Take time to really connect with the other person. The first meeting can be an opportunity to get to know each other better, explore what you have in common and build on that.
Once you are comfortable with each other you can bring up the career questions you have for them and introduce the areas that you would like to strengthen. Summarise your meeting to show that you value their input.
Send them a thank you note and share a few things that you learnt in your first meeting. Let them know that you would like to follow up on these aspects during the next few weeks.
Follow up during the next weeks on the actions you have taken based on your learnings during your first meeting. Keep your tone casual and create an ambience that is comfortable for both of you. You may add a few points that you would like to follow up on.
After a few meetings you will have a good idea of how he could help you as a mentor and once decided ask him to be your mentor and wait for his viewpoint.
If they respond with a yes then your work is complete. If they defer their decision then also it is ok and as long as they can find time to meet with you and guide you there is really no need for a formal label.
Maintain the relationship.
When you ask someone to be a mentor you are asking them to invest their time in you. Show them that the time is well spent by demonstrating your gains with their mentorship.
Keep them updated: Nothing pleases a mentor more than seeing that the time they invested was valuable and helped them advance their career goals. Use the time between meetings to take action on the goals you have set yourself with your mentor. Send them regular updates on how their inputs are helping you achieve the targets you had set. the goal is to keep in touch and keep them informed about your progress.
Offer to help: Remember that mentoring is a two-way street. You are keeping him updated on the benefit you accrue due to his mentorship but you can also offer to help them in any way you can.
Express gratitude: Send a thank you note after every meeting. Even a short thank you note would show them that you appreciate the time spent and the guidance received.
Mentorship can help you accelerate your career goals. Staying firm in your career goals and being proactive will help make your mentorship a successful one.
What’s the Right Way to Find a Mentor?
by Janet T. Phan
HBR 2021 /03
R2G 