Written By: Yashika Sabharwal
The Power of Mentorship on Your Road to Progress
Leaders and Mentors shape our nation, communities, and organizations. We are always in need of a good leader to help and guide us, to make the essential large-scale decisions that keep the world moving. Our society always quick to identify a bad leader, but we are here to know how to identify a good one? What would most people say makes a good Leader/Mentor?
According to the research, it is found that the Characteristics of a Good Leader are Great mentors, who consistently possess these 10 core leadership traits:
- Positive attitude
- Creativity
- Ability to inspire
- Intuition
- Honesty
- Ability to delegate
- Communication
- Sense of humor
- Confidence
- Commitment
While many powerful and successful mentors haven’t exhibited all of these character traits, and the definition of a good leader can be quite ambiguous nowadays. Mentorship comes in many flavors in the present life. It never works unless or until a mentor bear in their mind a few common principles such as:-
Experience ensures a pool of wisdom
Ideally, a mentor must be a person who has been in the channel and has the worldly experience to guide you and set you in the right direction. Technically, a Successful or Doyen Entrepreneur is an ideal mentor, as they will always help you to get comfortable with the industry ropes and hurdles.
With the many battles fought, within the industry and the necessary attitude to screw around obstacles, their infinite wisdom is totally gained from years of vast experience, which makes them eminently suitable for the role of a Mentor in the society. So whether it be scaling, merging, or operational guidance, you need to have a battle-ready veteran who has mastered the art of corporate diplomacy and warfare.
Pillar of positivity and support – Communication
It is easy for mentorship conversations to quickly devolve into rant sessions. Good mentors are the people that able to inculcate a positive thought process to help their mentees make the most of every situation – even the difficult ones that nobody has any control over. More importantly, mentors bespeak this positive thought process themselves and become the role models their mentees with their needs.
A large part of positive communication involves active listening. Therefore, leaders should establish a steady and flow of communication between themselves and their staff or team members. They can even make it happen through an open-door policy or regular conversations with workers. Other skills related to communication include:
- Active listening
- Articulating
- Business storytelling
- Clarity
- Explaining
- Expression
- Facilitating group conversations
- Nonverbal communication
- Presentation
- Public speaking
- Reading body language
- Reducing ambiguity
- Verbal communication
- Written communication
Reflective Empathy
Empathy is one of the key principles and important qualities in a mentor because finding someone who’s respectful is key, but so is finding someone who will give you some tough love when you need it for motivation. A good mentor knows how to deliver perfect feedback in a way that’s constructive, kind, and direct, and doesn’t shy away from being honest because they’re afraid of hurting your feelings.
What does this look like? Your mentor should be asking questions more often than simply telling you because harshness is sometimes necessary but in a positive outlook.
Read Also: 8 Ways to Boost Your Confidence
That curiosity is important for any mentee because “you want someone who can relate to you from your perspectives for better understanding. Oftentimes people try to impose their own beliefs or ways of approaching things on others, and this can be a good mentor’s downfall because imposing personal beliefs lead to the ruling. So be empathic and represent your point of view normally, not like imposing.
Benefits to the Mentor
Becoming a master or mentor to your team can enrich your life on a personal and professional level by helping you do the following:
- Build your leadership skills– Mentorship helps you to develop your ability to motivate and encourage others. This can also help you to become a better manager, employee, and team leader.
- Improve your communication skills– Every mentee may come from a different background or environment, the two of you sometimes may not “speak the same language.” This may force you to an effort in finding a way to communicate more effectively and efficiently by navigating your way through the mentoring relationship.
- Learn new perspectives– By working in the less experienced and from a different background, you can gain a fresh perspective on new things and learn a new way of thinking by your different mentees – those different ideas and perspectives can help in your work life as well as your personal life.
- Advance your career– Refining your mentorship skills can strengthen your on-the-job performance and experience, perhaps it will help you to get that promotion to higher management – or into management in the first place.
- Personal satisfaction– It will always be very personally fulfilling to get to know that you’ve directly contributed to someone’s growth and development which makes you personally satisfied. Seeing your mentee succeed as a result of your motivation input is a reward in itself.
