Why You Need a Mentor if You Want to Grow in Your Career

It’s a known fact that very  many young people today don’t embrace mentorship and even a larger number have no mentor of their own. Well as we live in a world of eat or be eaten, having a mentor is the perfect fuel to career growth and this is simply because Mentorship offers a safe space for individuals to pick up and hone the skills required for their careers. 

Here’s why you need a mentor;

Growing your professional network

Mentors are often a force to fathom in their fields and this alone means that they have a wide catchment area of various networks that could help you advance in your career. Mentors can help new mentees broaden their own network by making introductions and connecting mentees with other individuals.

Support in overcoming obstacles

Why learn the hard way or through trial and error when having a mentor could be the solution to all your problems? Mentors have literally been around for a while and have ‘seen it all’ so they are the perfect person/people to help you overcome professional obstacles that could hinder your career growth.

Developing Communication skills

We have already established that perfect communication skills both oral and written are a plus if one wants to advance their career. Mentors are the perfect people to help you hone the correct or professional communication skills needed to survive in your career. Just by seeing how your mentor communicates teaches you a valuable lesson that you might not have learnt otherwise.

Skill enhancement

A mentor shares their knowledge, expertise, and insights, helping the mentee develop and refine essential skills because mentors provide guidance on technical competencies, interpersonal skills, and industry-specific knowledge. So, if you are looking to hone transferable skills for future roles, having a mentor should be a must since they already know more than you do. Mentors help mentees identify their skills, orient them, hone them, and support them extensively to attain mastery of such skills.

Getting industry relevant advice

Like we already established, mentors are masters in their fields of expertise. When you have a mentor, you get a unique chance of getting industry relevant advice since the mentor has once been where you are. Industry relevant advice could be on what pay you should take, what job you should turn down, upcoming jobs in your field, and all these boost your career in one way or the other.

Boost confidence

Mentors can help you boost your confidence in your career. The advice mentors give and the small words of encouragement at every milestone you achieve are already a good enough confidence booster that can help you advance your career.

Accountability

When you have a mentor, you have gotten some you account to. Just like in school when we had teachers that marked our books. Now, if you have a mentor, it helps you avoid reckless professional mistakes because at the end of the day you have to be accountable. The feedback mentors also offer to their mentees is very invaluable.

Goal Setting

Mentors support their mentees in making SMART goals that will help them advance in their careers. Having goals is very vital for anyone looking to advance their professional career, and without goals, one is taking a hike without a map. Mentors help their mentees set goals and also cheer them on to accomplish said goals.

If after reading everything above you still have no mentor, I suggest you start looking for one. Having a mentor might be the best thing that ever happens to your career.