Creating your Team of Mentors

Link: Seeking Your Mentors, by Tara Weiss - Forbes.com.

Here's some useful advice on careers from Forbes: Find good mentors. Notice the "s" at the end. Because your professional career is dynamic and always changing, you need to accordingly find the right people who can help you out in different areas. Weiss likens it to being the chairperson of your own board of advisory mentors whom you can consult with whenever and wherever your professional development takes you. She recommends making your mentor team from the following:

1) Someone in your company who is one to three levels above you - someone whom you can go to for day-to-day challenges and learn from.

2) A high performing colleague - but not someone you're directly in competition with. This is someone you want to emulate by observing and talking about the moves and decisions they've made.

3) A peer in your field/industry who's not at your company. They can give you an industry perspective as well as a perspective from another company.

I think these are all key people you should build strong relationships with.  I would also  recommend a good recruiter you can trust. You may not see them as a true "mentor", but they should be part of the "advisory board" of yours when it comes to building your professional life. I've kept in contact with several very good candidates and clients with whom I have a strong relationship. Over the years, we touch base every now and then to see if we can help each other out - not necessarily dealing with job offers or referrals, but at least from my part - giving a perspective on how things are going in the job market. Since recruiters talk to a lot of people and know the job market well, they can give you that kind of information - useful things that you can take away and factor into your decisions about your career.  You'll probably come into contact with several recruiters over your professional life and will meet both good and bad. They key is to keep an open mind with the intention of building a good relationship with that recruiter as an ally/adviser. As with all the other mentors you'll approach, you'll have to be proactive about it with clear goals in mind of how you'd like the relationship to grow.

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Comments

[cybermole]

This post is precisely on target.

Reading "Power Mentoring" How Successful Menors and Proteges Get the Most Out of Their Relationships."

They discuss having specific mentors for specific areas of your life..including multiple professional mentors.

PS - I am looking for a mentor in the area of internet research and how it is used or should be used in Asia.

[Jason Sew Hoy]

Great post Steven. I have several mentors of my own and I find them to be an invaluable source of inspiration - particularly in keeping me on track with my goals beyond the day-to-day stuff. Am also discovering how powerful recruiters can be as allies!