Hi! This is Anita from the Wise Women’s Workplace podcast and Facebook group. Today we are going to talk about why you need a career mentor if you really want to get ahead in your career – especially if you aren’t in a top-level position already!
Backstory (Desires internal and external)
I used to hear that you should have a career mentor if you want to get ahead but for a long time I thought that didn’t really apply to my situation. Sure, it would be great to have someone who could give me insight about how to get ahead but I honestly couldn’t imagine why someone would want to give me their time – for free – to help me in my career. I didn’t really think I was at the right level – that I had to be a “career woman” to have a mentor. On top of that, I always thought that I worked in a specialized area and that it would be very difficult to find someone who could really understand what I do.
Wall (journey)
But there is a point where you need someone in your surroundings who has more experience than you to help guide you in the right direction – no matter what level you are. Your needs do change depending at what level you are in the hierarchy, but it’s always important to have someone guiding you – even – or especially - at an assistant level.
So, what IS a career mentor? A career mentor is someone who advises you on how to reach your career objectives and helps you navigate through career challenges. They are often, but not always, outside of your immediate department as this gives the relationship some necessary objectivity. Your career mentor could be among your friends or even in your family, but they are more likely an existing or past colleague or a member in your professional association.
Epiphany (New opportunity)
Sometimes you already have a mentor and you don’t even realize it. For example, it could be your boss. At the beginning of my career, I had a great mentor as a boss. He believed in me, he trusted my judgement, and he gave me informal feedback from time-to-time in little snipets of statements. They usually started with “You know, Anita, …” and he would follow with a suggestion or a comment that opened my eyes about something I wasn’t immediately seeing. After he would say that I often felt like what he said should be obvious, but with hindsight, many of those things he said fell in to the category of “you don’t know what you don’t know”. He was great! And I hope for you to have a mentor like that in your career at some point.
The Plan
Having your boss as your mentor is probably the easiest way to go as many helpful things are built into the existing relationship with your boss already. They understand you’re your area, your specific job requirements, they know what you excel at and what you don’t YET excel at, and you know them already so it shouldn’t be too hard to approach them.
The Conflict
But not everyone has a great boss. In fact, sometimes you need a mentor specifically because you don’t have a great boss.
Achievement
So, let’s talk about how a mentor can really help you in your career. There are quite a few ways, but let’s look at three common benefits of having a career mentor:
1) First, a career mentor can help you create a vision of where you want to go in your career. They can help you think through career evolution possibilities. From the inside you may only really be aware of what is on offer in your department or organization. A career mentor can open your eyes to other possibilities in your field that you may not be aware of and that would be well suited to where you want your career to go to. Also in terms of creating a vision, a mentor can give you a heads up on additional training or experience that you need to acquire if you want to evolve in a certain way. And, when a mentor knows your vision, they can steer you away from roles where you might get stuck in a dead-end or into an area that isn’t well suited to your career aspirations. So a mentor can really save you time when you develop your vision for your career.
2) Second, having a career mentor allows you to address any insecurities or challenges you are having. We all know that the business world can be quite competitive and sometimes can feel lonely. A career mentor can provide feedback when you need an objective view on work challenges that you are having. A mentor can also help you think outside the box about potential solutions to your challenges. And when you’re having problems, a mentor can also help you put things into perspective to help you to take a step back or adjust your mindset. So when you’re having difficulty, a mentor can give you much needed honest feedback about where you’re doing well and where you may still need some help.
3) Third, a career mentor can support and boost you in getting you to where you want to go. At a minimum, they will point you in the right direction for where you can make contacts that you need to move forward in your career. Someone more senior will have a good overview of the lay of the land in your career field and that can save you a huge amount of time so that you don’t have to try to figure that all out yourself. And, you may be very lucky – your career mentor may even open up their network to you. So a mentor can really be a catalyst in helping you move forward on a faster track.
Transformation
Having a career mentor is, I think, like having an older sibling in the workplace. They look out for you, they boost your morale, they encourage you, but they also tell you – in a nice way - when you mess up, and they often will come up with great ways of helping you. It’s definitely worth it to have a career mentor in your worklife if you want to take things up to the next level!
So, remember that if you are interested in any of the following for your career, you should seriously consider finding a career mentor:
1) #1 - Creating a vision: A career mentor can help you create a vision of where you want to go in your career by opening your mind to a wealth of opportunities that you don’t even know exist yet, they can help you decide if you need additional training, and they can help you avoid getting into positions that aren’t well suited to your career goals.
2) #2 - Addressing career challenges: Having a career mentor allows you to address challenges you are having by giving some perspective and guidance, and helping you think outside of the box for solutions by drawing on their own experience and expertise.
3) #3 - Actively moving forward: A career mentor can support you in getting you to where you want to go, whether that is by giving insights into making the right contacts or maybe even opening the doors to their own network for you.
A career mentor is someone who can save you lots of time and headaches in your career and can help you get on the faster track to advancing your career – regardless of the level you are at in your current job. And who doesn’t need that?
If you aren’t sure how to find a mentor, look for the future episode focusing specifically on that. Mentors are all around and it really isn’t that hard finding someone who is willing to take you under their wing as you may think – so I really encourage you to think about it!
