Become Inspired!
In a time when we can become bogged down with the day to day struggles of making ends meet, striving for the next promotion or just trying to keep your family together, we sometimes forget about the inspiration and motivation that moved us into the spot we are in the first place. The drive and excitement that we started out with.
Inspiration is what propels us from average to excellent. Inspiration drives us to pursue dreams, to chase a career, to connect with a partner. Inspiration is what moves us to get ourselves out of a situation that is not healthy. Inspiration encourages us to live life to the fullest!
Often, we are inspired by people and their stories. Their stories of success, sacrifice, persistence and even failure. There are various ways that people inspire us. They may care for us, deliver constructive criticism, be transparent and honest, walk with confidence in uncertainty, stay calm and cool in the face of diversity or encourage us to step out in faith. When we hear their stories and learn from their success and failures, we become inspired to do the same. Buoyed by those who have gone before us!
Mentorship is one way that we can put ourselves in a position to be inspired.
The benefits of having a mentor are numerous. Many individuals credit their success in life to the fact that they had a mentor.
Mentors and Mentees report that they have experienced many tangible benefits from their mentoring relationships or programs such as:
- Improvement in personal development
- Career Development
- Mental Health
- Organizational Health
Recently a survey was conducted by Olivet Nazarene University. They surveyed 3000 mentor/mentee connections and found that people with mentors are happier in their current situations than those that do not. If that outcome, happiness, isn’t compelling enough, here are a few other personal benefits of a mentoring relationship:
- Increased confidence: Whether it’s the ability to share ideas comfortably in meetings, or stand up for yourself in a challenging situation, people with mentors benefit from higher confidence in themselves. Mentors also experience an increase in self-confidence, as their mentee’s success reaffirms their abilities, resulting in a confidence boost.
- Higher self awareness: Working out your goals with someone you look up to requires serious self-analysis around strengths, weaknesses, and values. As a result, those who have mentoring are more self aware than those who don’t – and self awareness is highly beneficial when it comes to career development.
- Exposure to new ways of thinking: For both mentee and mentor, the mentoring process exposes new ideas and revelatory ways of thinking or problem solving. This can have long lasting effects on both people in the partnership, encouraging innovation.
- Giving and receiving feedback: Feedback is something we should all want in order to improve, but probably don’t ask for enough. Similarly, managers everywhere struggle with delivering feedback honestly and effectively. Mentoring helps people develop their relationship with feedback in a productive way.
Here are some compelling statistics that demonstrate the advantages of mentoring in the corporate world:
- 87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring relationship and develop greater confidence.
- 97% of those with mentors consider the experience to be valuable, BUT some 85% of employees currently do not have one.
- 84% of CEOs said mentors had helped them avoid costly mistakes through the stories of success and failure shared candidly by their mentor
- 71% of Fortune 500 organizations have a formal mentoring program.
- 94% of employees say they would stay longer at a company if they were offered opportunities to learn and grow.
- Nine of ten workers who have a career mentor say they are happy in their jobs.
- 67% of businesses reported an increase in productivity due to mentoring.
- 55% of businesses felt that mentoring had a positive impact on their profits.
- Mentees are 5 times more likely to be promoted
It is hard to argue against the positive impact that mentoring can have in a mentee’s life both personally and professionally. As demonstrated above mentorship has the ability to accelerate your self-development, career aspirations and many other areas of your life. There are many famous examples of mentor/mentee relationships that have proven to bear fruit such as Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerburg, Mahatma Ghandi/Nelson Mandella, Father Michael van der Peet/Mother Teresa.
If mentoring is such a benefit and many successful people have benefited from it, why do so few take part in a mentoring relationship?
76% of people believe that mentors are important, but only 37% of those interested in mentorship currently have a mentor.
There are all kinds of reasons a would-be-mentee has not found a mentor, but these are two of the most common:
- I can’t afford the time.
Some mentees feel that they just do not have the time to commit to a mentor. Given some of the obvious benefits to having a mentor a better question may be – How can I afford not to have a mentor?
- I don’t know where to find a mentor.
This is a valid concern. Finding a mentor can be nerve wracking. Who wants to approach a stranger or a friend of their dad’s and ask them to mentor you? What if they turn you down? What if you let them down?
There are several organizations that focus on helping a mentee find the right mentor. Organizations like the Canadian Mentor Network that help match a mentee with a suitable mentor. Only 14% of mentor relationships start by a mentee asking someone to be their mentor. Organizations that specialize in helping make connections can help bridge the gap. Here are some ideas of other ways to find a mentor.
Inspiration is defined as ‘to fill someone with the urge to do or feel something and instill the confidence that they CAN do it’. Why would you want to put that off? Why would you allow any obstacle to get in your way of being inspired?
Become inspired – Find a Mentor!
References
Canadian Mentor Network 