3 Tips For Better Collaborating With A Mentor

Mentorship is one of the most important roles anyone can fill, whether in education or business. In fact, MENTOR National reports that 74% of adults who had a “meaningful mentor” say their mentor was a significant contributor to their future success in life.

Mentors can help budding professionals in a wide range of areas, from providing a source of knowledge and setting achievable goals to offering feedback on their progress and helping them make new connections. The right mentor can have a lasting influence on an individual’s growth.

But finding the right mentor to collaborate with can be a challenge. Here are three things to consider as you select a mentor.

The Best Mentors Are Collaborators

I’ve found that the best mentors take a collaborative approach in working with their mentees. They are willing to work alongside the mentee to turn shared goals into reality and drive genuine growth.

As Praveen Dubey, senior software engineer at Microsoft writes for MentorCruise, “The mentee is like a young sapling, and the mentor is like the gardener. The sapling needs care and attention to grow, and the gardener needs to provide that care and attention. But the gardener also learns from the sapling, observing its growth and adjusting their approach as necessary. Both the sapling and the gardener have a shared goal: to see the sapling grow into a strong, healthy tree. And just like that, the mentee and mentor have a shared goal: to help the mentee grow and achieve their aspirations.”

While both sides have different roles to play in the partnership, true collaboration is what ultimately allows for successful outcomes to be achieved. Dubey argues that this is different from the coaching approach to mentorship, which focuses more on feedback and goal setting. Instead, collaborative mentoring focuses on building relationships and collaborating in a way that helps mentees improve their skills and knowledge.

Has Your Mentor Stepped Out Of Their Comfort Zone?

Mentors often want to help mentees extend out of their comfort zone — but all too often, mentors allow themselves to become complacent and get trapped in a comfort zone of their own. This inability to think outside of their own box can cause mentors to become less effective, especially as trends change in their industry or field of expertise.

Emily Ryan, Head of Marketing at Mentorloop advises that mentors should be comfortable with stepping out of their comfort box. She writes, “Remember: What worked a decade ago may not be optimal today, and what works today may not work as well in one, two, five, or more years from now.”

For this reason, effective mentors are focused on new trends and developments that could impact their industry and their role. They’re willing to admit when they don’t know an answer to one of your questions. Even more importantly, they’re willing to step out of their comfort zone and do the work required to find the answers to fuel growth and innovation for both of you.

Be Mindful Of Your Mentor’s Other Mentees

When evaluating potential mentors, one useful exercise can be to consider the other people they have mentored in the past — or who they are currently mentoring. For example, Menina Fortunato, an accomplished dancer, producer and mentor in the dance industry who has worked with Beyoncé, Britney Spears and Paula Abdul, shared some relevant advice in an interview with Inside Dance Magazine:

“Leverage [your mentor’s] contacts and experiences to fast track your success so you don’t waste years of energy, time and money spinning your wheels. Gain peer support from their other mentees and [surround] yourself with other career driven high performers who can motivate and inspire you. ‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’ Choose your support group wisely.”

Obviously, it can be valuable to see that a prospective mentor has a track record of mentoring other individuals who have gone on to success in your industry. But as Fortunato notes, a mentor’s existing group of mentees can become a valuable support group in and of itself — a group that can influence you for good or bad.

It’s Time To Break Out Of The Box

Mentorship doesn’t have to be limited to the relatively stuffy stereotype of occasional formal meetings to discuss goals and offer guidance. In reality, mentorship can be much deeper and offer much more for everyone involved when mentors are willing to step out of their comfort zone and embrace a more dynamic way of doing things. With deeper, more collaborative relationships, mentoring can unlock its full potential.