How you could benefit from using our mentoring scheme
Many successful professionals – from Steve Jobs to Richard Branson – have testified to the invaluable role mentoring played in their careers. No one is too experienced, too young or too old to have a mentor.
Mentors, whether in a formal or informal capacity, can offer ongoing, personalised attention that you can’t get from traditional training methods. A mentor can provide a neutral sounding board for ideas, listening objectively and providing impartial opinions and feedback.
One of the biggest benefits of having a mentor is learning first-hand from someone who is already in a position that you aspire to. The mentoring process allows you to learn from a mentor’s behaviours and experience and ask questions of a mentor who’s already taken a similar and successful career path.
Many professionals – especially those in the early stages of their careers – often fail to take the time to consider their long-term goals and how they want their careers to progress over time. A mentor can help you begin thinking about your long-term goals, not merely where you want to be next year. Our mentoring programme platform will not only help to match you with a mentor who has the skills and experience you are looking for, but it also provides guides and videos to guide you through every step of the mentoring process.
Ask a question
Once you have identified a potentially suitable mentor you can use the Ask Question feature in the mentoring programme platform to contact the mentor prior to sending a mentoring request to ask any additional questions to help you decide if this is the right mentor for you.
You may not want to enter into a long-term mentoring relationship; you may just have a few questions you would like an experienced mentor to answer to help you solve a current issue. In this case, the Ask Question feature could be very useful.
Access this feature by clicking the Ask Question tab next to a mentor's profile.
Responding to questions
If a mentor receives a mentoring request, they can use the inbuilt messaging facility on the platform to contact the mentee to get any required clarification before deciding whether to accept or decline the request.
Goal setting
Embarking on a mentoring journey without setting out some goals around what you are looking to achieve is like embarking on a real journey without identifying your destination. The first step is to identify the challenges you are facing, then setting goals and milestones to focus on throughout your mentoring relationship.
You can access your goals on the mentoring programme platform at any time to record your progress and note down the milestones you reach.
Setting and tracking meetings
The mentoring programme platform includes a meetings feature which enables you to set meetings and to record notes and action points that you can review at your next meeting.
You can access this feature in the Tools menu.
Ending your mentoring relationship
Hopefully you will follow the journey steps within the platform and will have a final meeting to review your achievements before marking your mentoring journey as complete. However, if at any point you change your mind and no longer wish to start or continue your mentoring journey do please let your mentor/mentee know by withdrawing from the mentoring relationship.
Access this feature by clicking the Withdraw tab next to a mentor's profile.
Last reviewed: 17 June 2021