Over the years, I have asked dozens of people if they have a mentor. Very few have responded yes.  Many say they had a mentor in the past but right now they don’t. It was not that they didn’t want a mentor, or that mentors were not willing.  So what’s the problem?  The answer may seem like an odd reason. It’s a lack of readiness to be mentored. Many have heard of the wise saying. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”.  Well, it’s the same for mentoring, When the protégé is ready the mentor will appear, and there are 4 ways this old saying applies to mentoring.

1. The mentee (or protégé) must know themselves and what they want before a mentor can provide guidance to help them.
2. The student will be looking for the teachers, and what one looks for they are more likely to find.
3. The willing mentor will recognize the student who needs their help and will jump in to fill the need.
4. Finally, the student will see everyone and each situation as a teacher or teaching moment for the lessons they will offer.

So, if you want to be more successful in your professional or personal life make yourself ready so a mentor can appear. If you don’t know where to begin the LifeTrec website is a great place to start.

Research:

There is plenty of evidence that highlights the importance of mentoring.  One of my favorite sources is a 2015 Harvard Business Review article which concluded “Research on junior to midlevel professionals shows that [mentorship] programs enable them to advance more quickly, earn higher salaries, and gain more satisfaction in their jobs and lives than people without mentors do. For employers, the benefits are not only higher performance but also greater success in attracting, developing, and retaining talent” (de Janasz and Peiperl, 2015, p. 101)