What is a Mentor?

January is National Mentoring Month. Today we will talk about a few different forms of Mentoring and how you can get involved or find a Mentor yourself.

A mentor is a person who teaches and helps to guide a person who is younger and less experienced; this applies both in the business world and in giving back to the community. 

In Business: 

Mentors help people ensure they move forward on the right career path and avoid many pitfalls that they may have faced. Studies have shown that a Mentor can help move a career along much more quickly by sharing their experiences and skills with the mentee. A mentee may need to do some legwork and research on the mentor and their skills. A potential Mentee should also have a good idea of what they want to achieve from the relationship. 

In the Community:

Mentors in the community reach out to young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, and give them help and advice. Mentorship improves academic performance, and mentors can help their mentees with many of the confusing first steps into adulthood, such as buying a car, interviewing for a job, building credit, and so on. If you want to get involved, this link will send you to Mentoring.Org, An organization that works to match mentors with young people who need them.

Mentoring in both business and the community can significantly affect the mentee and the mentor. Whether you want to reach out and help someone who may be struggling or find help yourself, I hope this post helps. If you have a story about mentoring or being mentored, please share it in the comments. Until next time.