Business mentorship can be tremendously helpful for small business owners looking for guidance from a more experienced professional, but even the mentor can learn some things along the way. Here are seven ways you can learn from business mentoring.
1. Learn to Improve Your Leadership Skills
When you serve as a business mentor, you can use the opportunity to improve your leadership skills, which can then be applied to your own business. You'll be communicating and providing guidance and support, but you'll also have to actively listen to your mentee and display patience while also providing motivation and inspiration. These are all helpful qualities when it comes to leadership in business. You may be practicing all of this with your employees, but mentorship gives you an opportunity to finetune your skills.
2. Learn More About What You're Teaching
You can learn more about the things you are teaching your mentee. When you choose to mentor another person, chances are you're going to want to do that well. This may lead you to go deeper into subjects you are already familiar with, teaching you some new strategies and ideas. Experts are always learning more about the fields in which they are experts. The same can apply to mentoring. Use what you already know, but take the opportunity to increase your knowledge and give your mentee an even better informed experience.
3. Learn to Think Differently
When working with your mentee, such as another business owner, you might learn to think differently in ways that impact your own business.
"I love what I learn when working with my mentees!" says Colleen McManus, a Senior HR Executive, and Consultant.* "They are hopefully learning a few things from me as their mentor, but their curiosity and questions drive me to think about things differently, research issues I might never have otherwise, and stay more current with issues that are important to those who are less seasoned in the profession. I often ask for their opinions and input on my projects, which provides me with more insights prior to finalization, as well as giving them some ‘real world’ ways to contribute while they are learning."
4. Get a Younger Perspective
If you've been in business a long time, you might be set in your ways in some aspects of your operations. When you mentor a younger professional, you might see things from a fresher perspective that take into account what you hadn’t considered before. This can be especially true when it comes to technology. People from younger generations are often more in tune with current technologies, and they might have solutions for their business that could help your own.
5. Learn to Get Better at Accepting Feedback and Criticism
As a mentor, you might be called upon to provide feedback and to critique certain aspects of your mentee's business. You'll want to do so in a positive and constructive way. This can give you a sense of empathy and might help you to receive feedback better from your employees and customers.
6. Improve Your Problem Solving Skills
Your mentee will likely want to get your advice on problems and how to handle them. This forces you to use your own problem-solving skills to give them your best guidance. They may be running into problems you haven't experienced firsthand, especially if they manage a different type of business. Providing mentorship can give you an opportunity to improve these important skills, which might come in handy for your own purposes.
7. Learn More About Yourself
Mentoring can provide you with an opportunity to self-reflect. Think about mistakes you've made, what you learned from them, and can now pass on the knowledge to your mentee. Think about the things you've done right. Considering all of this can help you place your own achievements into perspective and motivate you to make good decisions in the future.
When we think about mentorships, we tend to think about what the mentee is able to take away from the relationship, but there are also plenty of benefits to the mentor. Consider starting a mentorship with a young professional who can use your guidance and experience.
* https://www.score.org/resource/blog-post/benefits-business-mentoring-8-business-mentors-weigh
