How to find a mentor

“I think you need a mentor”

“A mentor will help you succeed in business”

“I had a mentor and it really helped me”

Have you had someone say this to you? It is great advice… but finding a suitable mentor when you want one isn’t that simple. So how do you find a mentor?

When I was first looking to start Next Level Mentoring I remember receiving an ebook called “how to start a business – an ultimate guide”. This ebook had multiple sections, each one covering an important topic around starting a business; insurance, registering a business, writing a business plan, websites, making money etc.

Each section had several pages with facts, links, checklists etc. It really was an ultimate guide and I learned a lot from it. All except one section; Advisors.

In the Advisors section, which didn’t even stretch past one page there was a subsection call “mentors” and for that it said “Meeting someone who’s already in business can help you avoid the mistakes they made.”.

And that was it! No helpful links to how to find a business mentor, no tips or tricks to help make that connection, nothing around what you are meant to do once you got this mentor. Good advice, but with zero substance behind it. I had seen this many times before.

It was in that moment that I realised the what I was building with Next Level Mentoring was needed. I wanted to build a business that made it easy for people to find a mentor and benefit from their guidance or to become a mentor and share their own hard-earned guidance with others. I wanted more people to experience the benefits and personal rewards that mentoring brings.

There are many ways to get a mentor and this article is to show the various pathways that could be available to you to find a mentor, in no particular order.

Join our community of mentoring

It is free for mentees and mentors to sign up. Its not limited to specific industries, countries or companies. In fact, its openness to anyone is what makes it both great and unique. Yes, you could find a mentor in your own industry. But learning about other industries, and how they tackle problems, will make you even more stronger. 

Click this link to access our mentoring app and start your journey.

Start your mentoring journey

Not only do you get the immense benefit of mentoring but it is also completely free, with free mentor and/or mentee training, free certification for mentors and access to brilliant people.

Check if your own company has a mentoring program.

Most forward-thinking companies realise that having a mentoring program for its people is a simple and effective way to demonstrate the company cares about their development. This aids in both the attraction and retention of talented individuals and is a win-win for the company and its people.

Your own company may already have a program that you know about and you just need to proactively take advantage of opportunities like this. Do it now, do it today! Don’t let opportunities like this pass you by. Because you are one of the lucky ones that have the benefit available to you.

Your company may have a program but you do not know about it. It may be poorly advertised, or it is only open to certain people, departments or groups. I would recommend asking your manager or HR if there is a mentoring program in your company and who can access it. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that there is a program already running and you can take part in it or you can add to your Personal Development Plan for future development.

But it could be that your company isn’t running a mentoring program or used to run one but stopped it. This is sadly quite common. If this is the case, please tell them you have heard of this awesome company called Next Level Mentoring that helps businesses quickly set-up and run simple, sustainable, effective and engaging mentoring programs and they should get in contact with us.

Check if your industry body, association or society runs a mentoring program.

Various industry bodies and associations run their own mentoring program for its members. Since members pay an annual subscription, a mentoring program is a sensible benefit that is offered as part of the subscription (or at a discounted rate).

You should check with any organisations that you are part of, or are considering being part of, as they may run a mentoring program or something similar.

Ask someone to be your mentor.

Now this is probably the hardest one of them of all but the one that is commonly given out as advice by people.

There is this preconception that people can just ask a stranger to be their mentor and expect that they will say yes. The reality is most people will leave be disappointed. Check out my LinkedIn article around this specific point your idols will not be your mentors.

These would be my steps if I had to ask someone to be my mentor.

1.  Work out why you would like a mentor. What areas are you looking for improvement in? What are your perceived gaps in skills and experience that a mentor can help with? Get a piece of paper and start brainstorming.
2. Investigate your own network to see who a suitable mentor for you could be. Is there someone in your company you admire or a person that you have meet via friends and was impressed with? Do not go to someone you do not know, because the strong chances are you will get rejected. Believe me, I have done that too and the conversation was very…em…. awkward.
3. Ask this suitable person to be your mentor. When asking them I would explain why you are asking for them e.g. “I am asking you to be my mentor because I really admire the work you are doing, and I know I could learn a lot from you to help in my own journey of….”. People love to be flattered and it also helps them understand why you came to them. It will stand you in the best position for them to say yes.

They may say no, and you should expect that. They may already be mentoring someone else or just don’t have the capacity due to other commitments.  

It is this fear of rejection that leads to people never asking in the first place.

But don't worry, we have a community of people who want to mentor but were just not being asked.

Hopefully this article has helped you understand the various options open to you to find a mentor and we look forward to hopefully seeing you in our Next Level Mentoring community.

Best regards

Darren,

Director at Next Level Mentoring 

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