The relationship between a mentor and a mentee can be powerful. Mentorship can be one of the most valuable and powerful influences on a career and opens a world of opportunities that might not otherwise exist.

When discussing mentoring, the conversation often focuses on the benefits of mentorship for the less experienced partner in the relationship. But becoming a mentor is a hugely rewarding experience for the mentor as well, with many benefits that run both ways.

Mentoring can be both short and long-term, ranging from something as simple as a conversation to a fully structured, ongoing program of advice, support, and information sharing.

However you choose to structure it, becoming a mentor will undoubtedly be a life-changing experience for your mentee, and you might find it plays a significant role in the progress of your career as well!

"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you."  - Bob Proctor, Author

This article will look at the importance of mentorship, how to become a mentor, and crucially, how best to make a real difference as a mentor.

Why become a mentor?

Mentoring is more than just a career development program. It is a way to help others, pass on wisdom and advice, and a great way to learn more about yourself. Teaching others enables you to think more deeply about success tools and how you got to where you are today. You will gain new perspectives on your business and industry and valuable insights on everything from new tech to emerging trends.

Being a mentor helps you become more confident in your leadership skills and authenticates your position and abilities. It also enables you to develop and hone vital skills - teaching, training, and development being the most obvious, but also communication and listening.

A great benefit of becoming a mentor is that you'll likely become more empathetic and responsive in your leadership style, which can help enormously when building a functional and productive team. Mentorship is also a superb way to help leaders spot and develop up-and-coming talent.

What does it mean to be a mentor?

Mentorship is not just about providing career advice and training others in your industry, although this is part of the process. Trust is the heart of mentorship - giving advice, guidance, and support to help others grow, develop, and sometimes just feel more comfortable doing what they do.

Being a mentor means giving something back to your company, your industry, and others who might not have had the opportunities or luck that helped get you to where you are today.

A mentor can sometimes be most helpful just by providing a different perspective.

"My mentor provides a perspective that isn't riddled with the same self-doubt and stereotype sensitivities that I desperately want to avoid and handicap me," she says, "and a broader view of the implications of action versus inaction because they have a better vantage point from their upstream position within the company."  - Vrinda LeValley, Customer Training Manager, Hubspot

Being a mentor means helping others and sharing your skills and experience with your mentee. But mentorship also has meaning for the mentor. At its most beneficial, mentorship is a two-way relationship, offering as much to the mentor as to the mentee.

Mentors often find themselves inspired by those they teach. Being a mentor can offer a breath of fresh air in your work, increased motivation, and new relationships and perspectives with people you might not encounter in your day-to-day life.

What do you need to become a mentor?

Anyone can become a mentor, but it isn't something you just fall into…or at least it shouldn't be. To become a good role model, you need experience and abilities worth sharing, as well as the skills to teach them to others.

In the software engineering industry, being a mentor will likely involve offering specific advice on one of the programming languages or technical aspects of the job. As such, it's worth considering if your skills match up with your potential mentees so that you both benefit as much as possible from the relationship.

To be most effective as a mentor, you should be able to offer different perspectives that enable your mentee to overcome barriers or hurdles themselves, to provide practical advice that helps them develop, and to be able to communicate well.

One skill that is often overlooked is the ability to listen. Mentors can sometimes be too hands-on and overwhelm their mentees with information and advice. Often, a mentor can be most helpful by offering an outlet or an experienced ear, rather than always playing the career coach.

— Łukasz Łuczak (@lukasz_p_luczak) July 22, 2022doing software engineering, mentoring, teaching, leading, supporting etc. The better and more experinced you are the less time you spend with producing code and more time spend with problem solving aproach.
So do you ask about pressing keyboard or problem solving approach?

Five tips on being a supportive mentor

Focus on what your mentee needs

Every mentoring relationship is different, and every mentee will come to the table with different needs and expectations. A good mentor doesn't approach mentorship with a cookie-cutter attitude or a one-size-fits-all system. Successful mentors ask questions, discover what their mentees want from the relationship, and decide the best approach for their success.

Getting clarity on goals, ambitions, and targets is the first step for mentorship, but asking questions only gets you so far. You must help your mentee develop the skills to ask themselves questions, constantly looking at what they want to achieve and what tools they need to succeed. The very best mentors aim to make themselves redundant as soon as possible!

Set clear expectations

Establishing clear guidelines for the mentoring relationship from the beginning and being transparent about what you both expect from it is excellent practice and offers the best outcomes and results. It is worth discussing what your mentee wants to get out of the process, where you think they should be aiming, and what is realistic given time frames, abilities, etc. It is also worth discussing practical issues and concerns around confidentiality, so your relationship can begin on a solid foundation.

Avoid the most basic mistakes.

The most important thing to remember as a mentor is that while you might be keen to help as much as you can, too much handholding can be highly detrimental to development and progression. If all you do is spoon-feed your mentee, they will never develop the independence and confidence they need to grow and succeed.

As a mentor, your role is to guide and empower, not enforce and answer. You need to give your mentee the abilities they need to conquer their career demons and the tools to help themselves. Sometimes this means challenging them and giving them space to work out the answers for themselves.

Remember your career progression.

Your mentoring experience can and should be helpful to your career and your mentees. It should be a rewarding experience on both a personal and a professional level, offering you the chance to develop your skills and abilities, learn new ones, and discover a different way of looking at and thinking about your field.

True entrepreneurs and business pioneers know that success comes from disruption and thinking outside the box. Mentoring gives even the most successful among us the opportunity to step away from standard working practices and discover new approaches, perspectives, and ways of thinking.

Don't neglect your network.

One of the most important aspects of a mentoring relationship is the access you can provide to other influential and exciting individuals in your professional and personal network. Introducing your mentee to others in your network allows them to build their relationships, learn more from other reputable professionals, and discover exactly where they want to go with their careers.

Mentoring can have a transformative effect on a mentee's career and, when done well, can be a rewarding and immensely valuable relationship for both parties. Alongside career development, mentoring offers a whole host of opportunities for both mentor and mentee to gain new skills, reflect on best practices, and raise their professional game to new heights!