Do you mentor others in veterinary practice as a clinical coach? Or perhaps you’ve been recognised for your skills and expertise in the workplace, and now you’ve been tasked with helping someone else succeed by coaching and mentoring them?
Whether you’re currently working in a mentoring role, or interested in becoming a mentor in the future, mentoring is more than just transferring advice and knowledge, and it’s not just the mentee who will benefit. As well as helping you to advance your career, by mentoring you can gain extra skills and understanding.
From building professional relationships and developing better communication and leadership qualities, take a look at what else you can gain from becoming a mentor and how it could reward you professionally:
1. Give something back to others
Mentoring allows you to give something back to your colleagues and organisation, by sharing skills and experience with junior or less experienced staff members for the benefit of everyone in the team.
2. Boost fulfilment and job satisfaction
Supporting the development of others can boost your own sense of fulfilment and job satisfaction, especially as your mentor progresses and reaches their full potential. This, in turn, leads to higher morale and performance at work.
3. Learn and develop new skills
Your mentor is not the only one who will be learning new skills! The mentor-mentee relationship help you to strengthen your active listening and communication skills. Not only this, you can develop your personal leadership, management and coaching qualities. You will also learn more about other areas or departments within your organisation.
4. Reinforce your existing skills and knowledge
They say the best way to learn something is to teach it. Mentoring someone to develop the skills that you already know can help you solidify your knowledge of a particular topic. It can also help you spot any gaps in your own knowledge, so you can fill them and continue to develop professionally.
5. Pave the way to higher recognition at work
As a mentor, there will be a higher recognition of your skills and experience as a senior team member of expert in your subject matter. This increases peer recognition as well as enhances the value of your contributions at work. The new skills you learn from mentoring could even lead to more responsibility and promotions.
6. Gain exposure to new ideas and ways of thinking
The point of mentoring is to share knowledge, skills and experience. Naturally, doing so will bring fresh perspectives, ideas and approaches to problems which you can take back to your everyday work.
7. Enhance your professional development record
Coaching and mentoring is a great avenue for Continuing Professional Development (CPD). It could pave the way to formal qualifications and further training in the future.
8. Expand your professional network
Mentoring can help you develop more professional working relationships, as well as open up more opportunities for networking in your field.
9. Build Confidence
Working with someone less experienced than yourself to help reinforce their knowledge and teach them new skills can all help you to build your own confidence. The more confident you become, the less you’ll second-guess your decisions and the more confident you’ll be in your own role.
10. Achieve further career progression
Put simply, mentoring offers the regular opportunity to reflect on your own goals and practices. This can provide an added sense of purpose, responsibility and direction for your career.
Develop the skills to nurture growth, with a Coaching and Mentoring qualification
If you’re interested in developing your mentoring skills, our Coaching and Mentoring qualifications, accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), can help you support development within the workplace, as well as gain confidence in influencing, guiding and supporting those around you.
For further information on our courses, or details about how to apply, visit our website.