In your routine as a mentor and throughout your mentee’s stay, you will use and expand a variety of skills. Not only will the mentoring experience help you solidify these skills, but it will also provide you with a proven track record of using them. There are several ways in which your experience as a mentor can help you progress and grow in your career. You can make yourself stand out by showing off your newly-learnt skills in the workplace, or use your mentoring experience as an example when applying for new roles or opportunities.
So, what are some of these skills and how can you use them to advance in your career? We have gathered some of the most common skills associated with mentoring and how you can best utilise them below:
Communication
Much of the mentoring experience will consist of you having conversations with your mentee about their career and how they can advance. These conversations will include you listening to your mentees questions, internship experiences, and general concerns. You will then also be speaking and giving advice to your mentee, help them analyse and problem solve challenges or issues they might encounter.
Not only will mentoring strengthen your skills in these things, but it will additionally, provide you with some real life examples that can help you showcase your expertise to others.
Rapport and relationship building
Being able to build rapport easily with people from a variety of backgrounds is a great skill to have in your toolbox as a professional in the media industry. As a mentor, you will build a positive working relationship with your mentee and building rapport. This could be finding common ground and shared interests, or acknowledging differences and empathising with someone and their experiences (even if they differ from yours). Having experience as a mentor, will also showcase that you are a team player that is able to work with people from different backgrounds.
Confidence
It is easy to forget what we have achieved in our career journey to get to the point we are at today (hello imposter syndrome!). As a mentor, you will talk about your experiences and achievements and how you got to where you are today on a regular basis. Having these conversations and reflecting on your personal achievements might give you the boost in confidence that you deserve. Use this confidence to keep pushing yourself on your career journey – go for new opportunities and roles that would be the next step-up for you!
Leadership and management
Because they may seem casual, you might not think that you are ‘leading’ or ‘managing’, when it comes to having regular chats with your PressPad guest. However, even these small meetings will provide you with some leadership and management skills, which can prove valuable for your personal growth. You never know, it may embolden you and be something you can fall back onto when it comes to leading projects at work, overseeing small teams, or sections of a publication.
Something completely new
Maybe it is video production, unexplored social media platforms, the first bits of a new language, or new information about a specialism you previously knew little about. Whatever it is, be sure to continue working on these skills once your passion is ignited. Having a broad portfolio with unique or more niche skills as a media industry professional is never a bad thing!
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While this list covers some of the most common or key skills you will solidify as a mentor, it is by no means exclusive or exhaustive. Fact is that while you are helping someone as a mentor, you will also learn a new thing or two yourself that can help you in your career to make your host-mentor experience even more rewarding.
Image Credit: Diego PH
