Soon Hagerty is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Boundless Futures Foundation and founded and co-owns The Good Bowl.
Mentors provide a valuable service. Traveling life’s paths can be difficult, but getting guidance from someone who has walked the path ahead of you can be illuminating and life-changing. It is a gift of empowerment for those with less experience. And for those doing this good deed, it can be equally, or sometimes more, worthwhile.
I believe mentoring builds a stronger community. It’s an opportunity to give back. And while I don’t mean to make this sound like a selfish act, there is much to receive by taking the time to give.
Expand your horizons.
Being a mentor provides a chance to learn about different industries and new trends, catch up on the current environment, pick up new technology and absorb new business tactics. It’s a way to up your game and keep your mind sharp.
I currently mentor a few women formally and informally. On the formal side, as part of an international organization called How Women Lead, I am mentoring a woman who runs a nonprofit in St. Lucia that helps female farmers around the Caribbean gain influence and collaboration opportunities. I’m not a farmer, but I can certainly provide insight into the leadership and organizational skills she wants to develop. She becomes a more knowledgeable businessperson, and I’m exposed to the day-to-day workings of a nonprofit. This has been especially valuable insight as I’ve recently launched my own nonprofit, Boundless Futures Foundation, that supports female founders. It’s a great chance for both of us to grow.
Demonstrate a desirable trait.
On a more granular scale, mentoring looks great on a résumé. It enlarges your network, and many employers value those willing to help others. It’s also a great way to expand interactive skills like personal communication. In short, you’re gaining valuable knowledge, skills and abilities as you provide the same to someone else.
All great, but some mentoring relationships are better than others. How can you make sure your relationship is the best it can be?
There are steps you can take to help ensure you get the most out of the process. First and foremost, value and respect each other’s time. That means being prepared for each session. It’s not a coffee klatsch, and it’s not a therapy session. Work toward specific goals.
If goals and deliverables are established for a session, it’s the mentee’s responsibility to do the assigned work. If they are supposed to send a report 48 hours in advance for review, they need to do that. And mentors must not wait until they’re sitting across from the mentee before they look at the report for the first time. Commit to making the most of your time together and hold yourselves accountable.
I recommend the mentorship be as structured as possible. There should be a start and end date. Will it be one session? Three? A month? A year? (A mentor is not a free life-long career coach.) Set meeting frequency. Once a week? Once a month? Set the meeting length. One hour? Two hours? Set objectives in advance so your time is more productive.
Plant the seed.
How do mentorships begin? Before we go any further, let’s blow up a myth. Mentorships do not have to be an older, more experienced person showing the ropes to someone their junior. In the age of high tech, plenty of younger, more tech-savvy people are mentoring those who didn’t grow up with technology. Keep that in mind if you ever want to do a tech startup and don’t have a tech background.
Mentors can be found anywhere and everywhere. You may know someone, or you may know “of” someone. The latter might take a little detective work to make a connection, but it can be done through a myriad of social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Many corporations have formal programs where experienced and inexperienced workers pair off. Either way, research for both parties is important to help ensure you vibe with each other.
Reap the harvest.
We’re all busy. It’s hard to carve out time for things that aren’t urgent or situations that aren’t on fire. But mentoring is all about your focus and what you want to get out of it. It is similar to volunteering or spending time with your family. Mentoring gives back to your community and adds enormous value to the lives of everyone involved.
This story originally appeared at: Forbes