Why You Should Become a Mentor
If you haven’t heard, LinkedIn has rolled out a new service that matches mentors with people searching for mentorship.
It’s a great initiative, and I’m going to tell you why you should get involved.
Mentorship is very important. When I was young and entering the workforce, I had very little direction in my education and very few people to look up to. By chance, I found two amazing mentors who showed me the ropes and provided me with career-advancing development opportunities.
Now I’m a bit older and wiser, but guess what? I still have several mentors who continue to pour value into my life.
Why mentorship? Mentorship allows you to interact with someone who’s already experienced what you’re experiencing. A mentor has a strong character and skills you wish to emulate. Mentorship exposes you to someone who shares your beliefs and, more importantly, who believes in you.
Never thought of becoming a mentor? Well here’s why you should do it:
- Mentoring enhances your skills and solidifies your learning.
It’s easy to think that we cannot mentor or teach until we become an expert in our field. That’s incorrect. You only need to know more or have a different experience than your mentee. In fact, through mentoring, you’ll learn more about yourself and your skills by helping someone else to learn. By teaching someone else, you re-learn or solidify your knowledge and enhance your own skills.
- You can change someone’s life for the better.
There is no greater satisfaction than knowing you have positively impacted someone’s life. By helping someone see their unique skills and talents, you build your own legacy and change the world one person at a time. Mentorship provides meaning and purpose in life that cannot easily be fulfilled in other ways.
- Mentoring will increase your gratitude and improve your quality of life.
Its human nature is to become obsessed and anxious about our hopes and fears without slowing down to count our blessings. Mentoring someone less skilled and experienced has a funny way of increasing our gratitude for all the things that have gone right in life. Without mentoring and teaching, we easily discount our own success. Michael Singer writes in his book The Untethered Soul, “Your inner growth is completely dependent upon the realisation that the only way to find peace and contentment is to stop thinking about yourself.” Mentoring shifts our focus from ourselves to others, and as a result, we become happier.
Ultimately, mentorship benefits both the mentor and the mentee. Mentorship has the ability to dramatically change your life and the life of the person you are mentoring. Additionally, you’ll learn a lot about yourself, increase your knowledge and skill set, and become a more grateful person as a result.
Decide to become a mentor today. Check out LinkedIn to see how you can get involved. Additionally, feel free to reach out to me as I’m organising mentorship programs in Melbourne, Australia for emerging leaders and at-risk youth.
Reggie James is a CEO / Sales Guy at Beaker & Flint where he helps organisations build digital products and guide them on their digital transformation journey.
Have some ideas or questions you want to run by Reggie? Reach out either via the comments below or start a conversation by email here.
