Should You Become A Mentor?

Taking on any challenge in life is a decision to be weighed honestly. Becoming a mentor is most certainly a challenge. But the thing with challenges is, the rewards are often great. This is true of mentors. 

So, should you become a mentor?

First, we need to ask ourselves what is a mentor? What does being a mentor require? Do I have the ability to be a mentor? Then we can weigh all of that up against the benefits of being a mentor. In this way, you will be able to more accurately decide if you should become a mentor.

What is a Mentor

What do you think off when you think of a mentor? Do you think of the Jedi Knights and the Padawan that they take on? Do you think of Galileo and the pupils he had at his feet? Or, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady and the extensive mentoring he gave in that musical? 

Either of these options will bring you close to the mark, for a mentor is someone who has walked a particular path of experience and then chooses to share that experience with someone else who wishes to walk the same path.

Trainer, Counsellor, Coach, and Mentor. What’s the Difference?

Let us look at this in terms of a dance teacher helping an aspiring young dancer become the next dancing star.

Trainer. Trainers transfer skills. They have their own expertise and credibility which they then use to train someone else to do things exactly the way they were taught.

A trainer will teach a child how to be a dancer, in the same dance style that they learned themselves.

Counselor. Deals in personal matters. Emotional matters. Health issues and relationship issues. 

A counselor will teach a child how to cope with the life problems and pressures of being a dancer.

Coach. A coach is a proactive trainer. What they teach changes depending on the needs of their student.

A coach will teach a child how to dance in multiple styles, depending on what the child wants to learn. This style may change or evolve over time. 

Mentor. A mentor has already walked the path themselves. They understand exactly what it takes to get where they have gotten. They use this knowledge to provide support and advice encouraging the personal growth of others.

A mentor will teach a child how to be the dancer they always wanted to be. The Mentor will help the young dancer exceed beyond what they were capable of themselves. 

The Benefits of Being a Mentor?

When you think about it, there are many benefits to being a mentor. 

• When you teach a topic to someone else you re-learn it yourself. It helps you to retain knowledge and keep your mind sharp. 
• You get to see things from a different perspective. You always used to push the straw back into the can to drink. Someone teaches you that the cap of the can twist to hold the straw in place. You may wonder how you never noticed the hack before. Now you need never struggle with the straw in the can again, because of a new perspective.  New perspectives can often make changes for the better. 
• Improving Confidence, Motivation, Leadership Skills. Mentoring is a chance for your own personal growth as well, as you can use it to build out skills you may have always desired to learn.
• Reverse Mentoring. Just because they are younger it doesn’t mean they have anything that they can teach you. The younger generation is often more clued in on technology and how to communicate with others their age. You may learn something from them.

There is one benefit that stands above the rest. That feeling of having helped someone else succeed. 

Imagine for a minute that you were that dance teacher. You taught an aspiring dancer, who couldn’t even balance, how to prance across a stage in a perfectly timed ballet. Imagine how you feel when you sit in the audience watching them dance, the star of the show. Every movement is perfect and fluid, capturing the hearts and imaginations of everyone in the audience. How would you feel? Wouldn’t your heart swell with joy? Would you perhaps shed some tears of happiness? 

That is the result of being a good mentor. 

Do You Have the Skills to be a Mentor?

Contrary to popular opinion, you do not need a lot of skills to be a mentor. You don’t need qualifications in mentoring, or leadership. What you do need is:

1. Passion. The desire and wish to teach your subject, your career path to someone who is willing to learn. 
2. Willingness. The passion will make you want to teach, the willingness will motivate you to find someone who wants to learn and make yourself available to teach. Mentoring takes time. You are going to need to be willing to make that time. 
3. Patience. Not everyone will learn at the same speed you did. You need to be able to be patient with your mentee as they learn. Something that is easy to you may be a nightmare to them. 
4. Communication Skills. If you are anti-social, never speaking to anyone, lock yourself in your office type of person, mentoring will be difficult. Mentoring requires that you have the ability to communicate, speak and teach. If you lack this skill but still have the desire, willingness, and patience, there is hope for you as a mentor. Communication is a skill everyone can learn. 
5. Something to teach. As a mentor people will come to you to learn something. What career paths have you traveled? What jobs have you been in? What skills have you developed? Know what it is you wish to teach and work on it so that those skills never dry out. 

Your Work

Whatever your job was, you can teach it. Even if you were a housekeeper for years. People see this as a low level, entry job. Yet some people work at this job their entire lives because they develop a passion and a love for it. Housekeepers learn many skills. Skills like how to pay attention to detail, how to get a bed looking perfect, how to clean glass so it shines, or how to wipe a mirror so it doesn’t smudge. 

If we can find so many skills that housekeeps can teach, we can find skills for any career path. 

One must consider the versatility of the human race. When it comes to people, everyone wants to work somewhere. There are children out there who want to be hotel workers, want to be teachers, want to be CEOs or writers.

Every job requires skills to some level, which means that no matter what job you are in you have skills that someone else does not. These are skills you can mentor. 

What do you Need to be a Mentor?

The traditional mentor will regularly meet or talk with the mentee to help them improve on their skills. This type of mentor does not need anything except his/her skills as a mentor, and a way to document or keep track of the mentee’s progress. (Journals, Planners, Notes) 

The Modern-day mentor works online. The benefit to this is you can help anyone from anywhere in the world. You do not need to settle for those living near you or your hometown. You can speak through the computer, share updates through apps and, if the desire takes you, meet up for events. 

The downside to the Modern-day mentor is you will need some extra equipment. You will still need Journals and planners to help you monitor your mentor’s progress (or the equivalent apps) but you will also need a computer, an internet connection, and (preferably) a space. This space is the room you will mentor from, and it will help you to keep in the mindset of mentoring while you are mentoring.

Should You be A Mentor

After reading all the above, how many boxes did you tick? Could you be a mentor? Ask yourselves the following questions:

• Have you ever been in a career role?
• Have you learned skills that you feel will benefit others?
• Have you ever wanted to help someone?

If you have answered yes to all the above, then you can be a mentor. But should you be a mentor? 

You need to remember that when being a mentor you are taking an important step in someone else’s life. You are helping them to reach a point that they may depend on reaching. It is their dreams and aspirations, something of great importance to them. 

Be honest with yourself. 

• Can you help someone reach those goals and aspirations? 
• Do you have the time to invest in the life of another? 

If these answers are also yes, then yes. You should certainly consider becoming a mentor and improving someone else’s quality of life and career.