You may be considering acting as
a mentor and yet hesitating. Is it
worth the investment? Will I make
a difference in this person’s life?

These are good questions to ask yourself. You want your time and effort to count, because you have other priorities to juggle. You should never serve as a mentor if you don’t want to.

Here for your consideration are some potential benefits of your taking this step. Maybe one or two of them will influence you to venture forth.

1. Mentees need your expertise.

You have a wealth of life experience no matter what your age. You know how to provide a listening ear, plan a project, make things happen, study and evaluate situations, talk to individuals and groups, influence others to take steps, bargain, write documents, parent, handle aging parents, express your feelings, telecommute and/or hundreds of other abilities. Thousands of individuals could benefit from grasping at least one thing you know.

2. Mentees need your particular slant on your expertise.

Mentees don’t just need the general expertise you own; they need your particular version of it. How you do it differently from others. The unwritten rules you’ve learned on how to do it better, faster, more enjoyably, or with more sensitivity. No one but you knows this, and it will end with you if you don’t pass it on.

3. Mentoring is less time-intensive and mentor-managed than it used to be.

Remember when mentoring was a lengthy, very involved one-way process? Mentors did all the choosing, pushed mentees to reach goals the mentors had in mind, and kept mentees under their wings sometimes for years and decades. The good news is that mentoring has changed drastically in the past 10 years.

Mentees now manage the relationships, or at least take a major share of responsibility for setting goals, making sure meetings happen, monitoring their progress, and asking for and providing feedback. A little mentoring goes a long way. Even one to two hours per month of focused contact time with a mentee over six to 12 months can make a large positive difference in the mentee’s life, career, and self-confidence.

4. It’s a way to leave a legacy.

Are you a parent or guardian? If so, you have a natural way to leave a legacy to the world through your children. You can also leave an important legacy through the work you do, what you create, improve, and influence that makes the world and the people in it better for having you in it. Mentoring at least one person well is another powerful legacy you can leave. A part of you, your experience, and your character will be a part of that person’s journey, which in turn is likely to be a part of someone else’s. Mentors really can change the world one person at a time.

5. You’ll learn from your mentees.

We hear a lot of buzz these days about “reverse mentoring.” This means that the person normally thought of as the mentor is the receiver of guidance and learning from the person normally thought of as the mentee. An example of reverse mentoring is the corporate world in which older mentors are learning computer tips and tricks from their younger counterparts. No matter what your mentees know and can do, you’ll learn something from them about their worlds and experiences.

6. It’s satisfying to see someone shine.

As a psychologist who has worked with a variety of clients on issues ranging from shyness and relationship problems to achieving career excellence and healing from past sexual abuse, I know there is nothing quite as exhilarating as seeing a person get beyond a difficulty and become better than she/he ever thought possible. It’s truly a high! This doesn’t always happen when we reach out and try to help another, or at least it doesn’t always happen in front of our eyes. But we can help them start the process and pass them on in time to another mentor who takes them further. If we’re fortunate, we’ll see at least one person flourish. That, quite frankly, is the best payoff of mentoring.

As you finish off this year, I hope you give some thought to mentoring in the coming one. We at The Mentoring Group would love to hear what you decide to do.

For more ideas on being an effective mentor, check our Archive and Products.