Working with a mentor could be just what you need in order to help you change your career or
help you with your professional growth. But how do you find a mentor? Well,
in this video, I'm going to share with you how you can find a mentor.
And if you stay tuned to the end of this video, I have something really special for you, in order
to help you, not only with your professional goals, but with professional activities as well.
Hi. If you're new here, welcome, I'm Adriana Girdler and on this channel, you're going to
get the best career and project management advice, coming to you weekly. So please,
consider subscribing to this awesome community. Now, if you're interested on how to find a mentor,
let's get to it. Mentor or role model? Okay,
before we dive into this, we really need to have an understanding between the two.
A role model is someone that you look to, who you don't have necessarily connections with and you're
inspired by them. They could be celebrities. They could be sports figures. They could be
individuals that are just out there in media and you look to them to see what they do to emulate
some of the really things that you resonate with. Now, a mentor is someone you have connections
with. It's kind of like having a coach that you can share your concepts, your ideas. They're
going to provide you with their experience and so this is a more intimate relationship that you have
with this individual, your mentor, who's going to help you along your career path. It's usually
someone who actually has a lot of experience, so that you can use their wisdom in order
to help you grow in your professional career. Developed relationships. Huh? So in order to find
your mentor, look to the developed relationships, you already have. So you may know people who would
be great mentors, but maybe haven't thought about them in that context. So take a look at who you're
connected with. Take a look at the rules. Are they someone who has a wealth of experience? Have they
climbed that corporate ladder? Can they provide you with some insight? Are they on the same...
Are you on the same track that they were on, so they can give you a lot of good feedback?
Do they... Are they managers? Because all of that stuff becomes really important. You may already
have someone without realizing it, who could be an amazing mentor for you. You don't have to
reach out necessarily to someone new, or outside of the circle, that you've already. So really
investigate to see who you can count on, or call upon, that's already in your developed network.
Seek out a mentorship program. Now not of all organizations have mentorship programs, but
there are quite a few that do. So, go to your HR department. Ask, do you have a mentorship
program? Because they may be able hook you up with individuals who actually want to be mentors.
You also can take a look at any associations that you belong to. So if you're a professional who
has a professional designation, like an accountant or a project manager or an engineer,
then you can go to your association and ask, do you have any mentorship programs? Because yes,
there are mentorship programs within those associations.
So, take a look at the resources that potentially may be at your fingertips through associations
and your organization because they may already exist and you just have to tap into it.
Ask someone. Okay, this is slightly different than going to your developed network because now what I
would like for you to consider is take a look at your organization. Is there any individual
who you may not even know that well, but perhaps they're on the path that you want to be on.
Perhaps they are doing the things that you like to see yourself doing. So you may want
to reach out to them. Introduce yourself. They're in your organization and saying,
"Hey, would you consider being my mentor?" And if you do that and you are reaching
out to someone and you don't have a formalized mentorship program, really think about what do
you want from this person? What would be expected? What are the amount of hours that are going to be,
that this mentor of yours potentially is going to have to invest in you? So get clear with that
yourself before you kind of reach out to ask someone, because it is a volunteer program,
right? If you're asking someone, are you going to pay them to be your mentor? No. Usually you're
looking about advice. It's time. It's them volunteering their time to help you and give
you guidance. So really think about who is it that is around you, that you may not know and you want
to get some advice from, but also think about how you want to set up this mentorship as well,
and what are the expectations for both sides. Network. All right, this is another great way
to find your potential mentor. So if you've done all the other things, you looked at your immediate
circle of people that you already know and there's no one there. Your organization doesn't have a
program. Or perhaps there's just no one in your organization that you want to ask, network is the
next best thing and here's a really cool tip. Go to Google search bar. Type in network event, plus
the city you're in, and you'll be amazed. A whole bunch of networking events are going to pop up.
Now when you network, you want to find out and ensure you network in the same type of industry
that you're in because again, you're trying to find like-minded souls, individuals who have sort
of done the due diligence and have gone through what you are looking to get into, so they can
provide you guidance and wisdom. So really check out that Google tip because it really is cool and
go to as many networking events as possible. If you're prepared with what you're expecting,
you'll be quite surprised. A lot of individuals do want to help other, up and coming people, because
what you give is what you get. At least that's a philosophy that I have. So check out networking.
Now that you know how to find a mentor, I told you earlier on, not only do I want you to take
a look at about improving your career, I want you to take a look at improving your career
tasks and activities and this is it. This is a free download just for you.
It's going to give you everything you need to know, in order to be successful
with your projects, or your activities. Because again, if you're looking to grow, then you
need to ensure that what you're doing is also successful, not just the mentoring activities,
but your other activities as well. So, check it out. It's underneath this video. A link to this.
If you learned something new, please like this video and considers subscribing. It actually
tells YouTube that we're putting out great content, allowing us to reach a wider audience,
to give you more great content. So please, that really helps us out and I'd be so appreciative.
On that note, please let me know, do you have any other mentoring tips that perhaps
you would like to share with me? I would also would love to hear anything else you
want to say from a topic conversation too. So, next video. See you later.