Mentorship - why is it important?

I often reflect back on where I have come from in terms of my career and how I managed to get to where I am now. I can honestly say that having supportive people around me has been key in that journey. Yes, I have worked extremely hard, but this only gets you so far. Establishing and maintaining supportive relationships with people you wish to emulate is necessary to capitalise on your work. I identify most of these supportive people as mentors. They have come in a number of shapes and sizes. Mentors can be at the peer level or in a position of seniority. Both are important, and can help us develop and grow in different ways.

The peer mentor has the advantage of seeing you in your every day role. They are uniquely positioned to provide honest insights into now only how you are perceived, but also where your strengths and weaknesses lie. While they may not have an extended network from which to draw, the kind of clarity they can provide to your work can be profound. I myself have had the pleasure of working with one such person. We formed a very close and intense working relationship for a period of time (albeit short in the scheme of things) as we both had a temporarily aligned goal, which was to extend ourselves from our current roles into one that would offer us more opportunity to grow. We both helped each other in a significant way by providing honest, thoughtful advice and care to one another. We shared intellectual ideas about leadership and workplace culture, and tempered each others worst instincts. It was a genuinely transformative experience, and changed the way I interact with, and view other colleagues. These peer mentor relationships help us to grow individually and provide a lens that can help offer reflective clarity.

The senior mentor is generally more removed from your every day role. In my experience, people who are directly above me (immediate managers) have not been situated to act as a mentor as they maintain a conflict of interest due to balancing the demands of being supportive, whilst considering their managerial responsibilities. Generally, the most impactful mentors have been a few levels removed or know me outside of a working environment (external committees and organisations). There are two key benefits to this type of mentor. Firstly, they generally have an extended network and, if they are invested in you, will help link you with key people who can help advance your career. A good mentor will only facilitate meeting these contacts, and not directly involve themselves, particularly if you are applying for a new job. It is vital that you do not have paternalistic relationship with your mentors. If this starts to become evident, and you are a person of integrity, it is time to move on.

Secondly, a senior mentor has the advantage of experience. They have been where you are and made their way through to their current role. They have unique insights as to the best way to achieve your goals and are generally pragmatic in their approach to helping you. A good senior mentor will not always intervene to prevent imminent failure or roadblocks. Failure is an important, and inevitable part of life, and a mentor will not always protect you from this. It is crucial that we learn some lessons through failure, as this is where learning and growth occurs. A mentor who constantly protects you is not doing you any favours. If you feel like "they should have warned you about that" perhaps stop, and reflect on the journey before defaulting to a blame position. Conversely, if your mentor is intervening before you have a chance to handle difficult situations yourself, it might be time to move on.

If you have not already, I highly recommended attempting to identify both peer and senior mentors in your life (or perhaps there is someone you wish to mentor yourself). Even though your relationship may only be temporary, it will have a lasting impact on you both, personally and professionally.