Mentoring Others: Your Responsibility as a Leader
If you’re a leader in any context, you probably remember the people who helped you along the way. You might have had at least one significant person — a mentor — who took a special interest in your development. Maybe someone is serving as your mentor now.
If so, lucky you! Someone took one of their major leadership responsibilities seriously, and you benefited from that. Mentoring others has always been a critical component of leadership and business success. It develops great people and teams, which leads to growth and profitability. Plus, mentorship assures that the next generation has the knowledge and skills needed to continue that success.
A term used in mentoring others is “mentor leadership,” which you might not have heard of before. So, what is it? Mentor leadership is the art of leading a team by effectively mentoring its members and developing their leadership potential. Mentoring others isn’t restricted to those in senior leadership roles. Anyone with relevant/appropriate experience can nurture mentees, encouraging them to learn, grow, perform better and progress in their careers.
Ultimately, mentor leadership empowers aspiring leaders to navigate the complex journey of leadership with confidence and purpose. As a mentor you play the part of a guiding light, showing your mentee(s) how to navigate through opportunities and uncertainties, good times and bad.
How to Be a Good Mentor
Here are five strategies for developing and using your own mentor leadership potential.
Be authentic and take a genuine interest in your team members.
Be real, because nobody likes a fake. By this point in your career, you’ve learned to build from your strengths. However, letting your mentees know that you are real and have your own uncertainties, fears or lack of skills is okay. You’ll grow a deeper rapport and trust with them, which will allow you to get to know and understand them on a personal level and help you build stronger relationships.
Be an active listener.
With a goal of leading and coaching, help your mentees make their own best decisions. Great coaching doesn’t mean you make the decisions or give answers. Instead, you help mentees find/make their own. Active listening skills, including supportive eye contact and nonverbal cues, are critical. Listen closely to what your mentees say, ask thoughtful questions to get to the heart of the matter and play the role of sounding board.
Learn from and share your mistakes.
It’s good to be open about your own mistakes. This aligns with the first strategy of showing your authentic self. The key is to show others that you’ve learned from your mistakes and won’t make the same ones again. Sharing these trials can break through barriers you might have between you and your mentees. It’s an effective way to make a point, teach a lesson and impart wisdom. Being honest about your own mistakes and mishaps will demonstrate your realness and vulnerability, making you even more approachable and better to follow as a leader.
Define what you’re best at.
As mentioned before, no matter where you are in your career, if you see yourself as a leader you can mentor those around you. If you’re new to mentoring, start by thinking about the things that you’re best at and have a significant amount of experience in. There may even be the chance to consider “reverse mentoring” with those who are more senior than you if you have expertise in a topic they aren’t familiar with.
Seek out best practices.
Leaders are never satisfied with how things are. As a leader you’re constantly growing — looking to make things better, run more efficiently or have greater impact. Seeking opportunities for innovation, training and development for your mentees or team should be a high priority. Invest in highly beneficial and quality training and coaching, (e.g., like our Career Transcend program and Presence coaching). This will help people engage more effectively with their roles. As they learn valuable new skills, they’ll want to put them into practice in their daily work environment.
Remember, mentoring others is not a boastful title but a potentially joyful and fulfilling responsibility. It’s a role that allows you to turn to your inner presence and consider what you can give back. You get to embrace shared strategies, infuse them into your own leadership style, and allow your mentee(s) and/or team to flourish within your organization.
