The best mentors strive to mold their mentees into future leaders rather than just competent followers. Serving as a mentor has many challenges and rewards. The long-term effects of mentoring, if done correctly, can benefit both parties in ways that can change their lives and careers.

Coaching and Mentoring: Comparative but Not the Same

It might be misleading when the phrases mentoring and coaching are used interchangeably. Even though the positions assist someone's development in a similar way, they include various disciplines in actual practice. A long-term connection centered on fostering the mentee's development and growth constitutes mentoring. The mentor shifts from being an observer and advisor on specific acts or behavioral adjustments in daily work to a source of wisdom, instruction, and support.

A connection of limited duration is often included in coaching, with the goal of strengthening or removing particular behaviors in the present. In relation to a certain set of activities, coaches assist experts in modifying behaviors that hinder performance or enhancing those that enable higher performance.

What Does "Mentor" Mean?

One may legitimately claim that a figure from Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey" was the mentor's first pupil. Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, gave Mentor a charge over his realm before he left to participate in the Trojan War. Mentor also functioned as Telemachus, the son of Odysseusteacher,'s and mentor.

Why Find a Mentor?

Let's say a bright person gets a job in sales and is mentored by a senior sales executive. The senior executive could mentor the rookie salesman as they grow as business leaders, strategists, and professionals. It's possible that the mentor won't give the sales associate procedure instructions or on-the-job coaching or training.

Instead, they will pose challenging, hard-to-answer questions, act as a sounding board when necessary, and push their mentee to think through problems and alternatives. The mentor-mentee relationship usually ends when the mentee switches employers, but the senior executive's influence continues to be felt in the mentee's work for the duration of their career.

What a Mentor Provides Mentee?

● Has a long-term perspective on your development and growth

● Gives you a glimpse of the destination but no comprehensive route map

● Provides support and cheerleading, but not instruction What a Mentor Never Does

● Act as a coach or teacher

● Act as your own champion within the workplace, just like your supervisor would; the connection is more casual.

● I'll describe the steps to you.

● Assist you with transactional, urgent issues

● Act as a therapist or counselor

Responsibility of the Mentee

Discuss and compare expectations for the mentor and mentee roles when you first choose a mentor and start a relationship. Explain your roles and how you two will communicate, comprehend professional objectives, follow through, and problem-solve as necessary going ahead.

Conclusion:

Your job and your personal life can both benefit from having a mentor. Bring to the partnership a desire to put in a lot of effort and reasonable expectations for the position. You might not immediately feel the effects of a mentor's advice and experience, but you will eventually recognize their positive effects and move on to mentor others.