Benefits of Mentors
A mentor is an influential and trusted teacher or counselor. Mentors are key parts of mentoring programs where they share their information, skills and knowledge so as to promote the professional and personal development of other people. The many advantages of mentors are listed below.
1. Acclimatize new interns
Mentors help in alleviating most of the frustration that new employees and interns usually feel during their first several months in the workplace. Through sharing their knowledge and insight of the industry and the company, new recruits can be really spared lots of stress that is normally felt by interns when acclimating to new work environments. Actually, good mentors can support and advise the interns, assisting to avoid unnecessary resignation caused by feelings of isolation and incompetence.
2. Act like role models
Successful mentors act like good role models for their mentees. In an organization, the mentors are supposed to demonstrate and uphold the ethics of the field they represent. Similarly, in a school setting, mentors help new students learn positive behaviors and offer valuable guidance on examination techniques. In both instances, the mentees learn firsthand how they should act in their respective settings.
3. Provide informal feedback
Mentoring relationships can be either informal or formal. For instance, most organizations have programs that match new workers with the already established ones. In these scenarios, the mentors are considered like an integral independent voice where the mentees can tell them new ideas and also how they feel, without fear of censure. The mentors themselves can also brief the managers concerning the development of their mentees.
4. Offer important skills
Mentors help develop a variety of skills, particularly communication skills. Mentees will gain the experience of communicating with older colleagues. Furthermore, mentors provide direction in unfamiliar areas like pitching to clients or even attending interviews.
Mentors are only effective when the mentees know what they desire to gain through the mentoring relationship and demonstrate interest and enthusiasm.
