Three Ways Becoming A Mentor Could Improve Your Skills

Here at Career Navig8r, we’ve said before that, once you become an expert in your field, the best way to continue improving your skills is to teach them to someone else.

The main reason for this is that teaching pushes you to reconsider your subject through the eyes of a beginner while bringing the knowledge of an expert. This strengthens your foundations and ultimately helps you to gain a broader understanding of your field.

All that being said, mentoring doesn’t just help you to improve your expert skill. In fact, as a mentor, you’ll get better at all kinds of skills purely through focusing on teaching what you know to someone else.

So let’s take a closer look at the skills you could passively improve through being a mentor and what that could mean for you and your career.

1. Better Communication

Communication is one of those life skills that’s always useful, no matter who you are or what your situation is. Furthermore, it’s an area where we never stop learning.

After all, good communication is just as much about understanding others as it is about getting your own ideas across. Or, to put it simply, good listeners make good conversationalists.

Now teaching will certainly encourage you to find new ways of getting your own ideas across but it’ll also push you to understand your mentees. After all, if you want them to learn then it’s important to know what kind of message they’ll be receptive to.

For those who become masters of their field, relating to beginners or laymen can sometimes be a real challenge. After years of thinking about the world through the lens of your expertise, your perspective is naturally shifted.

When all’s said and done, if you want to keep your communication skills sharp, then it’s good to understand as many perspectives as possible. The best way to do that, as with all skills, is through practice and working with a mentee/mentees will give you lots of practice.

2. Improved Networking

One of the major benefits mentees get out of having a mentor is, of course, access to a mentor’s network, but did you know this process can actually go both ways?

While initially, you’ll be the one helping your mentee to make industry connections and find their first job, as they build their career, they’ll be going out and making new connections all on their own. What this means is that if you’re looking for more fresh industry talent, or to simply expand your own network beyond your familiar circle, then your mentee could be a great starting point.

It’s worth noting that this is a longer term benefit and is somewhat dependent on your mentee’s path but it’s nonetheless a great way to keep making new contacts.

In fact, your mentee themself might one day become a collaborative partner. As with all things in the career space, while your relationship to your mentee may be a transactional one, that’s no reason not to build a lasting rapport that could benefit the two of you for years to come.

3. A Lasting Connection to your Industry

And speaking of the long-term, staying connected to your industry is about far more than just networking alone. While it’s always good to make sure your contacts are relevant and up-to-date, it’s just as important to remain knowledgeable about current trends and practises – especially if you’re planning on taking a temporary career break.

Many successful people take career breaks. Some do it to focus on their family life, others for their health, and some people just do it because they feel they’ve earned the chance for a little leisure time. That being said, it’s very important to distinguish between a career break and a retirement.

When people retire, they generally don’t plan on returning to their careers. While retirement careers are certainly not unheard of, there’s a big difference between returning from a career break and coming back to work after your retirement.

If you’re planning to return to your career, then you’ll want to maintain a broad, long-term understanding of the industry you’re in. Furthermore, it never hurts to return as a stronger, even more impressive version of yourself.

By being a mentor you could empower yourself to take some time away from your stressful career, all while developing and improving skills that will ultimately feed back into it once you choose to return. It truly is a win-win situation!

So if you’re the type of person who’s always looking to beat new challenges and push your strengths to the next level, then it’s time to sign up to Career Navig8r and start your mentoring journey!