Having a mentor for your Maryland startup is very helpful. Many great people, like Mark Zuckerberg and others, say their mentors helped them get where they are today. You might not even realize it, but mentors can make you better. After they listen and pay attention, they help you become a better person.
And they can help you get ahead in your job and learn new skills at work. What does it take to be a good one, though? What does the journey of mentorship look like for mentors and mentees?
Understanding the Role of the Mentor
The main goal of mentor-mentee relationships is to help the mentees learn and grow. But this could look different if your training program has other purposes. Knowing and planning the different things a mentor for your Maryland startup needs to do is essential. This will make sure that everyone knows what to expect from the mentorship and that everyone works together to reach clear goals.
There are many ways that a mentor guide can help make a real difference at work. To help mentees grow and develop, mentors train high-potential employees and bring on new employees. They share their experiences, lessons learned, and advice to help create a trusting and helpful learning relationship. By doing this, your mentors help to connect and keep employees who become skilled, hardworking people who care about the success of your business.
Mentors’ Role in the Workplace
Many businesses use mentorship as part of their training and staff engagement programs. More than nine out of ten workers with a mentor are happier with their jobs. A mentor is beneficial for both the person they are mentoring and the company.
Phases of a Mentoring Relationship
Any job mentorship program has four main stages, though each relationship will be different. Knowing about these stages and planning your program around them is very important. Let’s look at each stage of mentoring:
Purpose
This is the start of a mentoring relationship. The mentee gets to choose who they want to show them the way in their work. This happens for a mentor when they participate in a mentoring program and give advice. People on this site are looking to be matched with the right partner. They figure out why and how they want to be a part of a training program and do what they need to do to get started.
Engagement
When the mentor and mentee find each other, they start interacting and building connections. They will use this time to get to know each other and make a plan to help the mentee reach their goals. During this phase, the mentorship will focus on talking about goals and making them, figuring out problems and obstacles, setting limits, rules, and standards, getting to know each other, and building trust.
Growth
Growth is the longest and most important part of the mentoring program at the Maryland Innovation Center. This is where the mentor and mentee will continue to build their work relationship and get closer to their goals. Because making progress is the most essential thing, mentees may do things like watching their mentors work, working on new projects and tasks, solving problems, and more. Mentors, for their part, will help by constantly listening and giving clear feedback.
Completion
In this last step, the mentee has reached their goals, and the relationship ends naturally. The mentee has gained new skills and information and feels ready to keep learning independently. The end of a mentoring partnership should be a time for both the mentor and the mentee to feel complete.
Signs of a Great Mentor
To have a good mentor-mentee connection, mentors need to take the time to get to know their mentees and then tell them about themselves. Both mentor and mentee should feel good about being around each other. If not, their connection won’t be deep; it will just be surface-level. So, both parties need to take time to get to know each other.
Many people think the mentee does all the work when they have a guide. They are the ones who benefit the most from the scheme, after all. However, that’s not always the case. If mentors want this relationship to work, they must put in as much time and effort as their mentees. Plus, mentors benefit too when they teach, train, and guide newbies and help bring about change.
Ensuring the mentee can reach the mentor is important for the relationship. If mentees can’t reach their mentor promptly, they might just decide to forge ahead without any advice, which defeats the entire purpose of the relationship. Mentors need to make sure to show up to the times set aside to talk, work, and meet. And they need to let their mentees know they are always there for them when they need to talk.
Mentors need to check in with their mentees every once in a while. They could ask them how they’re doing if the method is working, and if they have any feedback or suggestions. If work is given to them, the mentor should ask them how it’s going and what they’re learning from it. If they miss something or act like they’re not trying, make them answer for it. The guidance won’t work as well as intended if only one person is committed.
Being a professional and a mentor means meeting people at various career points. This is where Howard County networking comes into play. Networking allows mentors to connect their mentees with people who can help them grow even more. Mentors can have mentees join talks with executives or take them to conferences in chosen fields. In either case, mentors need to teach mentees how to network so that they can make connections that are more about their careers.
Final Thoughts
When workers feel disconnected and see little room for growth or face other work issues, they may disengage, causing the company to miss out. Mentorships make a deliberate space for learning and growth, having valuable conversations about what is preventing employees from doing more and giving high-potential employees a chance to go above and beyond their ranks.
Mentorships are one of the best things to add to a training program to help your business improve. The mentors at the Maryland Innovation Center are here to help you along the way. You can see all our mentors’ profiles online, making it easy to pair each employee with the right mentor.
