Mentoring: A two-way street to growth and wellness
Opinion
Mentoring is a partnership where both sides have opportunities for growth, reflection and connection, with little organisation or financial input required.
Mentoring is often thought of as a one-way street — an experienced professional guiding someone newer in their journey. The truth is mentoring is a mutually rewarding relationship. Both the mentee and the mentor benefit in ways that go far beyond professional development.
It’s not about hierarchy. Mentoring is a partnership where both sides can have a brilliant experience, with opportunities for growth, reflection and connection.
Mentoring is also a fantastic antidote to the pressures and worries of our fast-paced industry. It’s human-centred, personable and tangible — a solution that seems so simple but has so much to offer.
That’s why Nabs has always offered mentoring support to the industry; we know that mentoring can lift us all up.
Mentoring can take many forms. There are longer-term mentoring relationships, speed mentoring (Nabs is offering one such event in October) and opportunities to get creative with the format, such as “mentoring on the move”, which Nabs offers yearly as part of its fundraising Walk and Talk event.
Each type of mentoring is built on trust, respect and shared experience, with the chosen format giving additional advantages.
Long-term mentoring fosters a deep connection and time to devote to a big challenge. Speed mentoring gives confidence in numbers, as mentees meet in groups with mentors, gaining knowledge from the answers to others’ questions as well as their own.
Benefits for mentees
Getting creative with the format can help to encourage a fresh perspective for both the mentor and mentee.
Let’s start with the mentee. Think about the junior creative looking to build their confidence or the account manager wondering how best to manage their client relationships.
For them, a mentor isn’t just a career guide; they’re a lifeline. They offer a safe space to ask the questions that they’ve always wanted to ask; questions that can be answered by the truth of someone’s lived experience.
The mentee gets to experience a meaningful and structured one-to-one connection — and we know how vital a sense of connection is to our mental wellness.
Just knowing that a mentor has dedicated their time to listen, understand and help work through challenges can be a huge boost to somebody’s confidence, outlook and mindset.
When the mentee can see their mentor is in their corner and believes in their potential, this can help reduce stress and anxiety, and influence the mentee’s career far into the future.
That’s before we even get to the benefits of the actual knowledge and insights that the mentor can share — a unique learning opportunity that can only come from this kind of conversation.
This is especially true when the mentee has a difficult situation to work through; how wonderful to know that you have someone in your corner to help find a solution.
What’s in it for mentors?
The benefits go both ways. Being a mentor can be a brilliant boost for your mental wellness.
Mentoring gives an opportunity for reflection. You get the chance to search back through your experiences, sharing them and perhaps even re-evaluating them. You’re giving yourself, as well as your mentee, a fresh perspective on your experiences.
This can be incredibly validating and rewarding. You can see how far you’ve come, the challenges that you’ve met, and the resilience and creativity you’ve shown throughout your career.
A sense of purpose and fulfilment is on offer, all for the reasonable price of some of your time and knowledge. The act of giving back has been proven to increase a sense of wellbeing and mentoring is an amazing way to give back to the industry.
All the mentors on our Walk and Talk event this year commented on how they had also gained knowledge and an alternative view from their mentees. One received new insights into personal branding and job searching — particularly useful as they were considering their next move.
Welcome mentoring as a learning opportunity and you’re sure to reap the benefits.
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When you’re actively listening and engaging with someone, you get the chance to see the world through someone else’s eyes and consider how your experience matches up. It’s a mental shift that can re-energise and re-motivate you.
Mentoring is a fantastic way to invest in people, with little organisation or financial input required. When resources are squeezed, mentoring is a very accessible way to benefit leaders and rising talent alike. In fact, Nabs’ upcoming mentoring event is free to attend.
Most of all, mentoring is a reminder that we thrive on building connections and that, when we come together as a community, the results can be brilliantly positive for all involved.
Uzma Afridi-Gardiner is principle business psychologist at Nabs