Do you know that your advice, support and mentorship can save that colleague of yours from being fired? Do you know it can save that student of yours from dropping out of school? And do you know it can heal a hopeless soul in your neighbourhood?

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." — Winston Churchill

If your cup is full then you have an obligation to fill up other’s cups, when their cups overflow they also fill up other’s cups and it becomes an embodiment of paying it forward. Mentorship is a cycle of generosity, you help others, you help yourself and better your society 

Sometimes it seems like the benefits of mentorship are just on the mentee. Research proves that mentees benefit from mentorship in several ways but being a mentor is also good for our personal and professional growth. Sometimes the mentor can be the one who gets more out of the relationship

In today’s post, we will look at the benefits of becoming a mentor

1. See things differently

As a mentor, you have the privilege of learning everything new again from your mentees fresh view of life. Being a mentor can challenge your own thinking by seeing things from a different perspective you are going to think about how you can do things differently yourself in your day-to-day life. You may as well find that you can challenge old or past behaviours and improve things in a fantastic way.

2. grows your network

When you start working with mentee’s, you are going to build a network of people who like you, know you and trust you. Even when they move on to a new corporation or start a new business they are going to think of you, recommend you and would want to keep working with you in some way. 

For every mentee you work with, your network is going to grow by not just one but probably five to ten people due to the people you will meet through them and the people you will meet for them when you look for people to help them.

3. Becomes a better leader

Being able to work with people of different gender, different age brackets, different backgrounds, different departments and demonstrating patience while offering them guidance and support, helping them figure out the best path forward: these are qualities of a great leader

When you mentor others and take care of the relationships people will respect you and think of you when it comes to leadership. They are going to see you as more of a leader than others and that can pay off for you.

4. Enhances learning and development

When you are trying to help someone see their learning deficiencies and improve upon them, you are going to notice yours more too. You are going to want to be a good example for example, by taking more classes, going to seminars and improving your own development.

5. Improve your interpersonal skill

Being a mentor can help your interpersonal skills when we mentor other people we learn how to interact, we learn how to answer challenges and questions, but also we learn how to listen. If you can improve your interpersonal skills, you are going to find this really valuable across the board in your organisation, in your industry and in your day-to-day life.

6. Gain verse knowledge

Mentoring would give you a far wider understanding of different departments, different organisations and different industries. When you mentor people, it’s not a must to mentor only those in the same industry or organisation as you. You are going to learn more about different parts of a different organisation or different departments by being a mentor and you never know what opportunity will unlock for you. Even if you are mentoring different people from the same organisation, the chances are, we may be doing so in different departments, you may learn about different departments and how you can have a more positive impact and it may help you in your everyday life. 

7. Positive impact

Being a mentor is a fantastic thing to do if you can have a positive impact on someone else’s life. As a mentor, you can change someone else’s life for the better. Your advice can help save someone the time he would have wasted on trial and error, your encouragement would help save someone from giving up and your support can help someone become a better professional in his field. 

8. Achieve career gains

Recent research shows that people who had acted as mentors were six times more likely to be promoted than those who didn’t, and 20% more likely to get a raise. An employer would prefer to bring on board someone who has mentored others over someone who hasn’t because mentoring others helps develop skills that you may not have learnt in school. 

9. Helps you leave a legacy

As a mentor, you will have the privilege of mentoring someone who is way younger than you are and of a different generation. This is an opportunity of leaving a mark behind even when you are not there. You may be mentoring a future leader, future employer, future director or even a future minister, making an impact in such a person’s life is also equivalent to making an impact on the future generation. some of the most successful people throughout our history have been mentored themselves and the mark of their mentor can be felt. For example, Maya Angelou mentoring Oprah Winfrey, Mahatma Gandhi mentoring Nelson Mandela, although they never met, Mandela was greatly influenced by the books and writings of Gandhi.

In conclusion, if you want to enjoy these benefits of being a mentor, it’s important to seek to be a great mentor by learning about the skills needed, taking your mentorship seriously and putting a lot of energy into it. Just like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. We at Mentortribes would love to help you make an impact on the world by giving you the privilege to teach out of your experience. 

Now I’d love to hear from you

Do you have what it takes to be a mentor and do you want to enjoy the benefits of being a mentor? 

What’s holding you back?

Let me know by leaving a comment below right now