MENTOR’S POINT OF VIEW: 7 REASONS TO BECOME A MENTOR

Have you ever thought of asking for mentor’s support? Lot of young professionalshesitate to pose a question, ask for advice, support or help from their more experienced colleagues, because they do not expect positive feedback, that somebody could offer pro bono support or share his/her knowlegde or experience without having any profit.

Maybe you have been somebody’s mentor? Probably you have been in a mentor’s role several times, consciously or not, in everyday life. What was your motivation?

We did a research within the „Creative Mentorship“ Pool of mentors, with the aim of finding out what motivates accomplished and successful people from Serbia and abroad, to take part in the programme and officially become mentor to an unknown and less experienced person – without any financial compensation. In this text, we share with you 7 most common reasons that motivate them to join the programme as mentors.

1. Sharing our knowledge but also the ways that have led us to gain it

The challenges that mentee faces and the opportunities in front of him/her, might look like blurred, similar but in the same time, different moments from our own experiences.  Trying to find a right path with a mentee, we often reveal our forgotten knowledge, and new ways of perceiving our experience maps and mistakes. This process has a potential to prepare us, differently, for our future challenges and projects.

Mentors who are participating in the „Creative Mentorship“ programme, deeply believe that the knowledge should be shared and not just kept for themselves. They understand the mentorship as an addition to the official education and want to share experiences they gathered in a different ways during their career. Moreover, they want to improve themselves and gain, through that exchange, new perspectives, ideas and knowledge.

• I consider my knowledge and experience useless, if I do not share them with others
• I would be glad to share my experience with someone who would appreciate not to pass all that road alone
• I know that universities and schools sometimes do not offer knowledge and do not transfer experiences that today’s generations are looking for. I collaborated with lot of people from all over the world, I changed several countries and working environments and gained precious experiences that I think I might share successfully
• Contribution to the affirmation of the direct knowlegde gaining in our environment

 

2. Excitement, inspiration and new energy

Mentoring is a way to connect with new generation of field professionals. It is very rewarding if we contribute to the development of a very good project and get the opportunity to better understand the ongoing changes and trends. Some of the mentors are interested in trying and experiencing new models and ways of communication, and they are often motivated and inspired by specific projects on which their mentees are working. 

The usual reasons that motivate mentors to participate in the Programme, are: 

• Curiosity to hear their attitudes, ideas and the way they think
• Additional inspiration for their own development
• During my work with children and young people, I gained a new insight concerning the question who brings the changes; work with young, enthusiastic people, education and shaping of young people…
• Opportunity to support the other person’singeniousness and efforts to research…

 

3. The opportunity to meet new people, who resemble us or are different from us, widen our network, collaborate and develop our ideas together

Mentoring, and especially mentorship programmes, give the opportunity to meet new people, who are similar or different from us. They open various opportunities: new networks, professional and social circles, possibilities for collaboration and partnerships and give insight into different thoughts, attitudes and experiences.

• I am interested to meet young people from my professional field with whom I could collaborate; Collaboration in the domain of developing of personal ideas and projects.
• I want to help young and talented professionals from my professional field to choose the right direction and make the maximum of their potentials.
• The opportunity to be useful and help somebody, through mentorship programme is really great!
• Meeting the other colleagues – mentors
• Networking is strengthening our position in the society but make us to become better members of our community, as well
• Stimulate people to broaden their perspectives and combine different fields and ways of thinking.

 

4. Wider social impact, in the case of “Creative Mentorship” programme – opportunities to support the development of culture, art and creative industries in Serbia

Although mentoring relationship is direct and individual, it gives us the possibility to present our ideas and values to some new circles.  By investing in those young professionals, we support, indirectly, their organisations, institutions, their professions, goals and vision. More than 25% of mentors in the “Creative Mentorship” Pool of mentors, as the core motivation recognises his/her contribution to the culture in Serbia, and mentorship is really one of the ways to struggle to live and work in a better environment.

• Mentorship is the best way to leave a quality trail and affect positively our environment
• To work together with the mentee in order to improve the conditions in my professional field, through experience transfer
• The engagement in the creative disciplines and in the cultural sector in Serbia deserves bigger support from the business sector
• The activism and the civil initiative are not enough promoted or properly understood in our society
• I wish to be included in defining our society in the future decades and to create contemporary education turned to human wellbeing
• An experienced, well – intentioned and socially responsible expert transfers his/her knowledge and skills to the ones who need them, so the civilisation could develop…

 

5. Strengthening my capacities and gaining competencies, opening new perspectives with regard to our everyday life

Most of the mentors are aware that the mentoring relationship is – two ways relationship, and that it offers a lot not only to mentee, but to the mentor as well. Participating in knowledge, experience and skills transferring, supporting the other in his/her thinking and problem solving, enables us to encounter with ourselves, contemplate and strengthen our own capacities. Besides that, participating in this programme is, to many, a good opportunity to find out about mentorship, try mentor’s or mentee’s role, improvetheir skills of knowledge transferring and to enrich their professional experience and everyday life.    

• Development of mentoring and professional experience; Researching different kinds of mentorship and potentials of mentoring relationship as a special way of learning; Improve mentor’s skills related to knowledge and skill transferring
• I consider the mentoring as a two way process from which I can learn a lot and to inspire myself; The experience enriches both, and the mentor and the mentee; Growth through communication with other person; There is no hierarchy between mentor and mentee
• I believe that all the experiences and information should be shared with community… so we could, through new dimensions and interdisciplinary approach, improve the idea or the product
• Work with young people as a new quality of everyday jobs; Meeting one, I would say, diligent and positive young person that could inspire me to improve further, as a professional, but also as a human being.

 

6. The core of Mentorship – the wish to help somebody and to do for others something that someone has already done for us

We could be a mentor or a mentee for the first, but, so to speak, not for the last time. The experience of successful and meaningful mentoring relationship and support is a strong motivation to enter the next, similar process.

• Support, experts help and wider perspective given the professional and personal mentees’ challenges
• As a young trainee, at one of my first jobs, I was privileged to have a mentor for five years. From my personal experience, I know how big importance the exchange could have for learning, problem solving, new perspectives…
• My mentors are still very important in my life. I want to “repay” them for all the encouragement…
• I was the “Creative Mentorship” programme mentee, so I want to “give back” to this programme, since it offered me so much.
• Be leaded by true values

 

7. The will to be the part of the programme that works so good

Finally, it is very important to be aware of the time and effort we invest in mentoring relationship, since they, very often, are the key factors of its success. Mentors are being motivated also by mentorship programmes – the way they match mentoring pairs, maintain the communication, solve the communication problems and support mentoring cooperation.

• The opportunity to participate in a project that points out as the example of good practice in the field of cultural management
• I heard a lot of positive comments and nice words, both from mentors and mentees from the previous generations. The whole concept is very close to my heart and I sincerely support it.
• I am motivated both by the programme and the team. I have been following for years the work of the “Creative Mentorship”.

Therefore, if you are considering to enter the adventure called mentoring: reassess your knowledge and experience. Get involved in new projects and establish new ways of cooperation. Find new sources of  energy. Change your usual perspectives on the challenges that you live. Be a mentor, look for mentor, or do both. Be more than a sum of your successes in your CV. The upcoming future will be grateful to you!

What motivates you to become a mentor? How would you describe your experience as a mentor or a mentee? Write us at:  info@kreativnomentorstvo.com.