The importance of choosing good mentors to achieve academic and professional success
The word mentor comes from a Greek myth. Mentor was the name of Odysseus’ friend, entrusted with the education of Odysseus’ son Telemachus. A mentor is a guide, a counsellor, or a Guru, who has the required expertise as well as the time and inclination to assist you in choosing the right career and the right course.
Further, a mentor can guide you until you join the chosen course or be with you in your professional career as well.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a mentor as “a trusted counselor or guide.”
Role of a mentor
Globalisation has created newer business opportunities and millions of new jobs. Further, the economy has several unconventional and off-beat career options too. However, while career options have multiplied, they are extremely competitive. In a world of new opportunities, the role of a mentor is even more critical in helping you choose the right course and career.
A mentor makes you realise if your aptitude and skill sets actually support your dream career.
They understand your strengths and help you to avoid career and course related mistakes. Importantly, if you face obstacles, they stay with you, providing support and inspiration.
Typically, mentors are great listeners, making you relax and open up. When disappointments of a degree or an entrance exam trigger negative emotions, they willingly provide vent to such suppressed emotions. Radiating positive energy, they prepare you to consider new ideas with an open mind.
Mentoring is a professional activity, a trusted relationship, a meaningful commitment. The origins of mentoring can be traced back to ancient Greece as a technique to impart to young men important social, spiritual, and personal values. Mentoring as we know it today is loosely modeled on the historical craftsman/apprentice relationship, where young people learnt a trade by shadowing the master artisan. In the mid-70s, corporate America redefined mentoring as a career development strategy. The concept of mentoring faculty and administrators is relatively new to higher education and rare in information technology circles, where staff professional development often takes the form of technical manuals and certifications. It is precisely this type of support organization, however, that needs a strong foundation of mentoring to build and retain a healthy workforce that can react quickly to change and can develop, adapt, and regenerate itself over time.
Mentoring relationships range from loosely defined, informal collegial associations in which a mentee learns by observation and example to structured, formal agreements between expert and novice co-mentors where each develops professionally through the two-way transfer of experience and perspective. Whether the relationship is deemed formal or informal, the goal of mentoring is to provide career advice as well as both professional and personal enrichment, we define a mentoring relationship as helping and supporting people to “manage their own learning in order to maximize their professional potential, develop their skills, improve their performance, and become the person they want to be.”
Who can be a mentor?
A mentor can be anyone from a professional advisor to a family member. In general, a mentor should have academic, economic and industry overview from both a short-term and long-term perspective. They easily relate your career preference to the knowledge and skill sets required for achieving excellence in that field. For example, if you want to get into corporate sector, your mentor can be someone senior in the corporate sector. Or, if you wish to take up teaching, your mentor can be a director or dean of an institution.
Pursuing excellence through your mentor
• Understand your interests and strengths, if required, through tests.
• Shortlist your preferred career options.
• Look for a mentor to guide you. The mentor should be knowledgeable and approachable.
• Discuss career prospects with your mentor and decide on the right course and the institute. For example, for a career in marketing, you can choose an MBA course.
• Determine what additional skill sets are required. For example, a short course in personality development for a marketing career.
• Establish the right relationship with your mentor. Be an active listener, seeking clarifications and guidance.
• Build your contacts using the network of your mentor.
• If your mentor is from the profession of your choice, understand their perspective and insight.
• Importantly, cultivate the right values, ethics and resources that’s required for long-term professional success.
• Think of ways to compliment your mentor for the time and energy they invest on you.
A mentor shares knowledge and wisdom and, in the process, kindles your mind to think and choose the right course and the right career. A mentor is someone whose hindsight can become your foresight to realise your highest potential and pursue your dream course.
Remember that ultimately you are responsible for your own career development. Your future success will in part be dependent upon your ability to make connections with those around you and gain their trust and respect. It simply makes good sense to utilize these offerings to your advantage. Twenty years down the road you may be able to attribute your success, in part, to assistance you received early on from another professional.
One of the most valuable assets your career can have is a good mentor.
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