5 Reasons Why You Need a Mentor And 5 Ways To Choose a Perfect Mentor

5 Reasons Why You Need a Mentor And 5 Ways To Choose a Perfect Mentor

Mentoring is very important in any field or career; it helps you make right choices and avoid repeating mistakes which others have made. The path in which you are now treading has been treaded by some people before you, to succeed on that path, you need to move close to those people and get informed about the strategies they used or adopted in scaling through. Those set of people you need to move close to are called mentors. In this article, I will be showing you the essence of having a mentor and strategies you could employ in choosing the right one.

Why you need a mentor:

1. 1. Mentors help you improve: Mentors see where you can improve when you often think you cannot. Mentors have this unique way of bringing out of the jade in their mentees, and this is what is needed for a successful career. You need someone who will help bring out the icon hidden behind your faults, someone who will tell you you can do it when you think you cannot. Someone who will always raise a surge of hope in you. Mentors are tools of improvement, if not for any other thing, you need them to improve and succeed.
2. Advice: there comes a point in our lives when we reach a roadblock and we feel a need to quit and relent, but mentors are the ones who will give us advice. Mentors give advices based on their personal experience and the experiences of people around them. Having someone who advises you when you are down is a precious gift that you can’t but thank God for, this is why you need mentors.
3. Tough boundaries: mentors create tough boundaries for you. Sometimes, doing it yourself and motivating yourself at the same time might seem difficult, this is why mentors are always there to set boundaries and targets for you and they ensure you meet up with target by employing different forms of “tough love”. They make you responsible and accountable; having someone we are accountable to, on one hand helps us to work harder, being held responsible on the other hand for the things we do also help us in ensuring that we do not relent in our efforts in getting things done correctly, appropriately and excellently.
4. Gives feedbacks: you need someone to give feedbacks about your work and progress, you need someone to tell you whether you are doing well or you need to put more efforts. The right person to tell you this is your mentor. Rating your work by yourself might not be fair, but when you have someone to do it for you, be sure to get honest comments. Mentors are there to give feedbacks regarding your jobs whether you have done well or there are still loopholes you need to fix. They give feedbacks on your works. While feedbacks might vary from being positive to negative, be sure to receive either of the two from your mentor, however, know that whatever feedback your mentors give are honest ones that you should embrace and work on.
5. Listener: you need someone who can listen to you, to what you have to say. You need someone who will pay uninterrupted attention to you and know where you are coming from; mentors are the right set of people. They listen attentively to your problems and propose solutions to them.

Having a mentor is advisable, but knowing how to choose one might be an issue, below is a few tips on how to choose your mentors.

 

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How to choose your mentors:

1. A good listener: study shows that people get confident in you when you listen to them. If he is a good listener, then he is the perfect match for you. A good mentor must be able and willing to listen attentively to his mentee without interrupting. “they can have all the answers in their head, but if they’re not willing to listen to where you’re coming from, they’re not going to be able to steer you in the direction that you want to go,” -Finkeldei.
2. Does he challenge you? Many people find it more comfortable living in their comfort zones and therefore do not make attempts to step out of their comfort zones. A mentor identifies your comfort zone and works by implementing forces that would mandate you to leave your comfort zone and explore. A mentor will push you to challenges. If your proposed mentor possess this attribute, then you are not mistaken, you are on the perfect track.
3. Emotionally intelligent? as much as a mentor might be older or more experienced than you, there is a need for respect. A mentor must be someone who is emotionally intelligent and does not hurt other’s emotion. As much as giving feedbacks are necessary, mentors should not give remarks that would hurt the mentee’s feeling. If the outcome of a job is not encouraging enough, mentors should find a way of commenting in such a way that the mentee will not get offended but rather see a need to work harder, mentors are not judgmental.

4. Sacrificing: one of the attributes that makes a good mentor is his enthusiasm to sacrifice resources, time and sometimes money. Mentors see a need to help you improve and they will go to any length to attain this improvement, this is why they care less about what they would be sacrificing in the process as they are more concerned about the outcome. They see every sacrifice as an investment to make someone better. If you see someone who is so keen on seeing you become a better person, embrace him, he is the right mentor for you.

5. Advice: mentors understand that things cannot be rosy at all times, which is why they help give soothing advice. One of the best advices you can get in life is from mentors

In choosing a mentor, you must know that the chances of meeting someone whose compatibility with yours is 100% might be slim, so instead of waiting for “Mr. right”, lookout for people with these qualities and move closer to them.

 

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