Being a leader entails great responsibility, as managing a team and making crucial decisions are part of the job. As a leader, you have to be assertive yet understanding and empathetic. You also have to be strategic, dependable, and flexible.
Because of the demands of a leadership role, new or emerging leaders can work with a mentor to help set them up for success in their endeavors. A mentor with expertise in a task or a role serves as a teacher, counselor, and advocate. In the workplace, mentoring involves helping one person learn through one-on-one training. Mentoring is also effective for leadership development in the long term.
One of the critical components of becoming a mentor is the clarity of your purpose. Knowing how to identify the proper measures and set fair and actionable expectations is crucial. As a mentor, you must also understand how to perform onboarding. Onboarding is done for employees to be fully integrated into the organization.
Another vital aspect for mentors is to build rapport and trust, along with communicating with them. Connecting with trainees can be done by greeting them and acknowledging if they do their job well. Mentors can also work around their similarities about specific skills they want to develop or their desire to learn more about the organisation.
Commitment is another crucial aspect of becoming a great mentor. In mentorship programs, commitment should involve everyone, the organization, the mentors, and the mentees, for mentoring to be effective. All parties should understand that mentorship can be successful if it is an ongoing commitment.
Developing leadership skills through mentorship requires long-term implementation. The role of mentors is to check the progress and determine if there are any improvements. Supporting mentees will also require total commitment to a mentor’s time and effort.
For more details about becoming a great mentor through online leadership courses, here is an infographic from Corporate Learning Solutions.
