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There is an accepted convention that mentorship boosts career success and this is supported by recent statistics.
94% of workers would stay longer and their employer offered more learning and career development opportunities. (LinkedIn)
90% of workers who have a mentor report being happy in their job. (CNBC/Survey Monkey)
Employees who are involved in mentoring programs have a 50% higher retention rate than those not involved in mentoring and 93% of mentees believe their mentoring relationship was useful. (MentorcliQ)
This is great news for mentorship, however, over a career lifetime, there are many different mentor/mentee interactions, and the challenges are constantly changing so you will likely need a series of different mentors and each of the key career stages.
Preparing for a career in Financial Planning.
More than ever before, there is a focus in schools, colleges, and universities on career skills. However, theory without practise is sometimes abstract. Mentors fill this gap. Mentors make abstract topics concrete by sharing experiences, reliving failures, or breaking down difficult financial case studies. A mentor's direct knowledge helps simplify complicated concepts into tales and meaningful guidance. This enhances knowledge and passion by showing students how their studies apply to real life.
Career Advice:
Financial Planning includes wealth management, estate planning, tax advisory, retirement planning, and more. Students may find this abundance of options overwhelming. Here, a mentor's advice is invaluable. Mentors might recommend a niche based on a student's strengths, interests, and goals to guide students towards their personal and professional goals.
Building Professional Etiquette:
No textbook teaches how to write a great email, conduct a team meeting, or dress appropriately for client contacts. Mentors offer crucial advice after navigating these areas.
They may use mock meetings, analyse email draughts, or advise on meeting presentation body language. These may seem insignificant, yet they often separate good from outstanding in a professional career. Mentors ensure their mentees enter the working world as sophisticated novices by establishing these etiquettes early on.
Early Career Professionalisation
Skill Development:
The early professional era is critical for transformation. The transition from theory to practise might be abrupt. Mentors help streamline this process. They help mentees develop analytical skills to evaluate data, use financial tools, and plan investment portfolios. They may suggest specialised training or resources to improve skills. Mentors emphasise soft skills beyond technical ones.
They may role-play challenging situations or organise mock client meetings to teach mentees about client communication. Mentors support their mentees to become technically and relationally proficient by employing a holistic development strategy.
Networking:
Early career is often busy with chores and relatively mundane tasks, but it's also a great time to build a professional network. With a mentor, this is much easier. Mentors recommend mentees to professional peers, conferences, and collaborative initiatives. These introductions can lead to jobs, collaborations, or knowledge sharing. This network becomes vital, helping career progress and providing diverse perspectives.
Handling Workplace Dynamics:
Every workplace is a microcosm of varied personalities, team dynamics, and unwritten cultural standards. This can be intimidating for newcomers. Understanding team hierarchies, interdepartmental partnerships, and office politics needs keen observation and planning. Mentors sharing their own experiences can help mentees to create great inter-team relationships, resolve problems, and position themselves for advancements. Mentors may relate stories of how they overcome their own problems, providing comfort and solutions. Mentors prepare their mentees to succeed in the workplace by highlighting these often-overlooked areas of professional life.
Mid-career momentum:
Strategic Decision-making:
Professionals typically struggle with a new set of challenges in their mid-career. These higher-level responsibilities require new decision-making processes. Decisions now affect the long term. A mentor's insight is crucial. They give holistic frameworks to evaluate decisions' current and future implications. Mentors help mentees realise the consequences of their choices and connect them with immediate and long-term career goals.
Balancing Dreams with Reality:
Professionals are often driven by ambition. Unchecked ambition without reality can lead to sub-optimal outcomes for organisations and teams. Mentors can teach their mentees when to be proactive and chase an opportunity and when to be patient, consolidate, and wait. This balance prevents ambition from burning out and promotes long-term success.
Developing Leadership:
From individual contributor to leader is a big step. No longer is it about personal achievement but about elevating a team, managing varied personalities, and achieving success. Mentors are crucial to this leadership transformation. They provide team management tips from their personal achievements and mistakes. They may teach team motivation, dispute resolution, and delegation. They also stress the significance of helping others grow, emphasising that true leadership is about generating more leaders.
Stepping into the Boardroom
Visionary Thinking:
The boardroom is where companies develop their overall strategies. It's now about piloting the ship, not simply a team or department. Mentors now collaborate in thinking leadership rather than just guiding. They encourage mentees to imagine the company in a decade or longer, beyond quarterly results and urgent issues. This involves assessing market potential, projecting industry shifts, and promoting the organisation as an innovator. Mentors help senior executives develop a visionary mentality by brainstorming, playing devil's advocate, or presenting them to futuristic ideas. This ensures that the organisation doesn't just adapt to the future but actively influences it.
Legacy Building:
True leadership is about lasting influence as much as short-term achievement. Legacy building involves focus, long-term vision, and a thorough understanding of an organisation's ethos. Mentors can advise on building lasting systems and cultures, mentoring future leaders, and instilling core principles. They stress the importance of long-term institutional health over short-term gains.
Continuous Learning:
Reaching the boardroom may seem like the height of learning. In fact, learning becomes even more important. Staying current is essential. Even at this advanced stage, mentors are essential to education. Effective leadership requires constant growth and adaptation. Mentorship keeps even boardroom veterans learning, adapting, and innovating.
The right mentor and the right time
Finding the proper mentor at the right time in one's career is like picking the best tool for the job. Just like a sculptor uses different chisels depending on the level of their work, professionals need mentors who can offer advice based on their specific stage of development.
Having a guide who knows their way around the industry and can help you build solid core abilities is invaluable in the first stages of your career.
One's mid-career is a key time to have a mentor with strategic insight and leadership aptitude to help navigate difficult choices and managerial issues. And a visionary thinker who can motivate long-term goals and leave a legacy is important in the boardroom stage.
As a result, having the proper mentor at the right moment not only accelerates development but also guarantees that each move is well-timed, well-considered.
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