Why Is Your Mentor The “Therapist” Of Your Career?

You may not need therapy, but you do need a good mentor by your side to boost your career game, and here’s why…

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

From Tech to a career in sports, your mentor is the guide who helps you navigate through uncertain times in your professional path and guides you to make crucial decisions to take your career to the next level. If you are like most people and think you would be able to manage without a mentor, let me try to change your mind.

What does mentor mean?

Well, let’s unfold that. The word “mentor” means a trusted and experienced advisor. So really the key here is experience and trust. A mentor is a source of insights, knowledge, and lessons learned from relevant experience in a specific field. Trust on the other hand is important so you can open up and share fears and challenges with that person. Think of a mentor as your wise teacher when you were in school or as your coach when you were in sports classes, but more than that…

What is their role?

Mentors are focused on helping you set clear, measurable, and achievable goals. As well as keeping you accountable along the way. They are responsible for providing feedback on how you’re doing and suggestions to improve areas you feel like you’re struggling with. But most important is that they provide their SUPPORT and want nothing in exchange.

Another important piece in that relationship is networking- mentors help you open up doors and create new opportunities while building your professional network. They introduce you to like-minded people and meaningful connections.

I always like to refer to the mentor-mentee relationship as an individual-therapist relationship. The therapist is the one building rapport through listening and caring while professionally evaluating the situation, but also staying away from directly providing suggestions. Your therapist is not going to magically resolve your issues but will prompt you to find answers within yourself and encourage you to use tangible tools and defined techniques. Exactly as your mentor is not going to find your next dream job for you, write your resume for you, or complete a certification in your place. They are there to guide you, ask the right questions, and navigate you through challenges.

How do I find my mentor?

Now that I convinced you you need a mentor, let’s talk about how to find one. Imagine you are trying to transition to a new role, looking for a new job, or just needing guidance on how to get better at what you’re currently doing. The common misconception is that mentors are only needed for people in the tech industry- wrong! You could be a baker needing help to improve a recipe or open a new bakery chain; you could be in the fashion world and need inspiration or join a new circle of people… any field is applicable.

To find the right person for you:

1. Start looking locally- any organizations that you have been following, bloggers or writers that you admire, or even friends of friends in your circle.
2. Approach the person you have in mind by simply asking them the question- would they be interested to become your mentor and spend half an hour to an hour bi-weekly, or as needed? Sometimes you have to just simply ask and many doors will open for you.
3. Once the connection is established- plan your time together and ensure clear expectations are set. Here are a few ways to make sure you make the most of your meetings with your mentor:
   - Reach out with specific questions or challenges
   - Create action items for yourself after each meeting
   - Be proactive and follow up with status updates on your progress

You will be surprised that most people will be interested in helping you. Why? It’s called the Science of Giving Back: they were once at the starting point you are in right now, they know they could have used guidance back then and they would be more than happy to share some knowledge. Things come to a full circle, one day you will be the one asked to be a mentor and give back.