It’s proven that mentoring has a significant impact on personal and professional development. And yet, close to 50% of people I meet DO NOT have a mentor. And do you know what the number one challenge that is preventing these individuals from reaping the benefits of mentoring?
They don’t know where to START!
This is surprising, since most of these individuals are smart business professionals who know how to START a project, how to START a company, how to START a meeting and how to START many things. Yet, they get stuck in trying to START a mentoring relationship.
One approach to help you get STARTed, is the “grab a coffee” approach.
You don’t have to be a part of a formal mentoring program to reap the benefits of mentoring; but you do need to do a little prep work to identify why you want a mentor.
Use a self-assessment (formal or informal) to determine your strengths and gaps. What area do you want to work on through a mentoring relationship? For example:
Do you want to work on your presentation skills, your strategic thinking, communication skills, or leading a meeting?
Perhaps your goals are more about personal development like “how to stay healthy while traveling for business”, or “how to deal with your teenage daughter”.
It’s important that you focus your effort around 1 or 2 development areas. This will enable you to take an intentional approach to your mentoring journey. Instead of asking someone “will you be my mentor?”, this approach enables you to ask, “will you share your insights about presentation skills (or whatever the area that you’ve identified)?”
The “Grab a Coffee” approach…
Find someone you admire who exhibits the very skill you want to work on, and ask them to grab a cup of coffee. I’ve never had anyone turn me down for a cup of coffee. This gives you an opportunity to get to know them, initiate a dialog and lay the groundwork to ask them to be a mentor at some point in the future.
Here is a sample email or phone call you might consider using:
“Tom - I admire your xxx (ex: presentation) skills and recognize you have a great deal of experience in this area. As such, I wonder if you’re open to grabbing a cup of coffee to exchange some ideas on the topic…and build our mutual network.”
It’s important that you prepare for this initial meeting by gathering a few articles, podcasts or concepts you’ve tried or ideas to share.
And don’t be in a rush to jump to the “mentoring” question. This approach is about building rapport. If the meeting goes well, schedule a follow-up meeting. You’ll know when the time is right to introduce a more formal mentoring relationship.
If you’re interested in a copy of KJ Company Self-assessment to identify your strengths and gaps, send me an email info@KJCompany.net.
Stay tuned to more ideas on STARTing your mentoring journey.
Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash