At different stages of your career, you may need advice or mentoring to navigate the career path and transitions in the business environment. There are several misconceptions regarding mentoring, and most of them are false. We are going to look into the ten common myths, which are:
1.Mentors must be older than mentees
Generally, people think that a mentor must be older than employees, but it is not necessary. A mentor can be someone of your age or younger than you what matters is their knowledge.
2. It is one-sided
There is no norm that one can either be a mentor or a mentee. You can be a mentor can be mentee simultaneously, and vice versa.
3. It is time-consuming
Most people think that mentorship requires too much time as it is during work hours. In reality, mentorship can take on many different forms, and you can mould it to fit with any of your life’s demands.
4. Mentees can only benefit from this process
An effective mentorship benefits not only the mentees but also mentors. It is a give and takes policy where both parties can ask and learn.
5. It stops once goals attained
The mentor and the mentee determine the duration of a mentoring relationship. It is useful to have a timeframe, to begin with, to establish goals. Once goals reached, you don’t have to stop it; you may revalue it or reconsider a fresh set of goals.
6. Mentee need only one mentor
Having mentors in different areas of expertise is handy as you will get fresh perspectives on each area.
7. Mentors must be an expert in your industry
Mentors must have experience and knowledge that is helpful for another person. They do not need to be experts; in fact, they must accept the fact that they do not have all the answers. Through training programs mentoring skills can be learned. CMI’s Level 5 qualification in Management Coaching and Mentoring and level 7 in Leadership Coaching and Mentoring are perfect courses to acquire the relevant skills.
8. It is for unsuccessful employees
It is a way to enhance skills, and improving skills is not only for unsuccessful employees. Developing new or existing abilities is for everyone from high-performing to low-performing employees.
9. Matches need to be perfect for effective mentorship
There is a common belief that successful mentorship can take place just by matching an experienced adult with a novice. Successful mentorship only requires effective communication and a strong relationship between both mentor and mentee.
10. It has to be on a face-to-face basis
In today’s high-tech era, there is no compulsion that mentoring has to be face-to-face. It can be via emails, calls or even text messages.
Mentorship can transform lives, but to do that effectively, we have to overcome the myths we have believed about what mentorship is or how should it be.
Get Qualified
If you need help with choosing the right program to accelerate your career growth, you can talk to our career guidance team here at admission@sbusinesslondon.ac.uk or call us at +44 20 3637 8765.