LMA Insights Mentoring 1

LMA INSIGHTS: MENTORING >> A good mentor will support and challenge you, helping you to work through your ideas and come to decisions independently. They'll share their experiences and lessons, but will resist the temptation to tell you how things should be done or to push you in a particular direction. Crucially, a mentor will be guided by your needs rather than dictating the way forward. AN OPEN BOOK A good mentor will be an adept communicator, because there's an art to asking questions that are targeted but not loaded. They will open up too, recounting experiences similar to yours, and if appropriate, share how they dealt with them and what they learned, and they'll help you to find relevance in their storytelling. A good mentor will also be a great sounding board; they'll encourage you to talk and share your emotions and will listen without judgement when you do. THINK LATERALLY When choosing a mentor think first about what you're hoping to achieve. If it's to develop in a technical or industry-specific area, such as strategy or training methods, it might make sense to seek someone from within your field. If, however, you want to develop in other ways, like maturing your leadership skills or coping better with pressure, an experienced member of, say, the business community, charitable sector or military may be able to provide a valuable alternative perspective. AT EASE For a mentoring relationship to be successful, the chemistry has to be right. That doesn't mean you need to be friends or know each other well, but you do need to feel at ease in each other's company and be comfortable confiding in one another. What's most important when choosing or being matched with a mentor is that you respect them for their experience and knowledge and that they are willing to challenge your approaches and ideas. REVERSE MENTORING A mentor doesn't have to be older than the person they are mentoring. Younger mentors will have different knowledge or skills that even a far more experienced manager can learn from, often in relation to the use of certain technologies and social media. This kind of mentoring relationship can also be