7 Impressive Benefits That Will Make You Want to Be a Mentor

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When it comes to mentoring, many people believe that it's a one-way street, that it’s all about the mentee and the mentor is just somebody there to help them. These people couldn’t be more incorrect.

Being a mentor is an immensely rewarding and worthwhile role, and something we should all take part in at least once in our lifetime.

Here at PushFar, we understand the value of mentoring and want to help everyone gain a deeper knowledge of it. That’s why, throughout this article, we will be sharing 7 reasons you should become a mentor this year:

1. Improve Your Leadership Skills

Whether you're already a leader within your organisation or looking to develop your leadership skills for future job roles, being a mentor can help you enrich your skill set. Leadership skills are incredibly valuable, no matter your career path or current job role, and improving them should be something all professionals desire to do.

Being a mentor allows you to practice leadership by working with your mentee to offer support and direction, whilst helping them learn and evolve in the process. Supporting others and making strategic decisions are noteworthy factors in leadership, and the more you practice through mentoring, the better you’ll get.

2. You Build Your Network

Whilst traditionally the mentors role is to introduce their professional network to their mentee, being a mentor also means you can expand your network even further.

Strong professional relationships are key to success, and you never know who the person you're mentoring has connections with, or whether they progress in their career to be a highly influential professional.

Developing your network allows for you to gain more insight, knowledge, and support during your career, which is something that we all need to advance.

3. Learn More About Your Organisation

Mentoring relationships are all about exchanging wisdom and constructing strong professional relationships. Whilst this point only applies to those who are participants of an organisational mentoring program, it’s still a significant benefit of being a mentor.

When you mentor someone within your organisation, you’re able to discover more about the organisation itself. Your mentee will be able to share with you the challenges they face within their daily working life and also might share their insight into the workplace.

The more you know about your organisation, particularly those in more senior roles, the more an organisation will benefit. More knowledge means judgments can be made more effortlessly and procedures can be put in place to assemble a more effective workforce.

4. You Learn About Other Industries and Careers

Being a mentor provides you with some fantastic learning possibilities, not just your mentee. When you mentor someone who doesn’t work within the same organisation, industry or career as you for example, you’re able to gain a deeper understanding into different career paths and industries.

Whilst, you might be thinking, ‘why do I even need to know about other industries and careers?’. The short answer is that the more you know, the more you can see through other people's experiences and perspectives. It gives you a more comprehensive view of the different challenges and experiences people face.

As mentioned, you can also expand your professional network through mentoring, and expanding your network to further careers and industries means that you’re enhancing your chances of additional prospects in the future.

5. Improved Communication and Listening Skills

Communication and listening skills are two vital elements we need to not only live our daily lives, but also progress during our professional careers. Being a mentor allows you to enhance your abilities, and what better way to do so than to help others achieve their own goals?

Learning new skills and reviving old ones can seem challenging, but the best way to do so is by practising with others. Communication and listening are two vital elements of mentoring because as a mentor you need to be able to truly understand your mentee, before delivering support and recommendations. It means you have to reflect on the challenges they face and help them find the most effective solution.

6. It Allows for Self-Reflection

One of the most underrated benefits of being a mentor is that it encourages self-reflection. It provides the opportunity to assist your mentee on their career path and the hurdles they face, whilst prompting you to take a deeper look at your own journey.

Being a mentor means you can gain a more in-depth understanding of not only your professional accomplishments, but the challenges you’ve faced and how you got there. When you take the moment for self-reflection, this allows you to communicate this new knowledge with your mentee, but also improve your own career in the grand scheme of things.

Are there any skills you can improve upon? Or was there a problem you handled, but could have done it better? These are just a few of the realisations you may have when you mentor others.

7. Change Someone's Life

Many people fail to realise the impact of mentoring, and the fact you can potentially change someone's life. We’ve all had something said to us by a teacher or colleague for instance, that has stuck with us for life.

Whether good or bad, life lessons are essential and what makes us human. Mentoring enables you to direct and support your mentee to achieve their goals, which can be life-changing for them.

Mentoring relationships are one of the most influential and valuable we have in our lifetime, and being a mentor for someone who needs it, is incredibly rewarding.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're a mentor, a mentee, or just browsing the internet to find out more about mentoring, everyone needs to know the advantages of being a mentor.

Having the ability to help someone change their life, whilst working on your own abilities, is something not often heard of.

Mentoring is one of the few types of relationships where both parties are at an advantage, being able to transfer and exchange wisdom.

If you want to learn more about mentoring or become a mentor, sign up to PushFar today. We have over 85,000 professionals across the world looking to connect with other professionals and grow together.