Which mentor works best for me?

We often think that to be a mentor, it’s essential to be highly qualified and to have an impressive background. Or, well, at least they have worked for an organization a few years. Of course, if it’s mentoring in an organization.

If I am looking for a mentor myself, I automatically start looking for the “stars” in the field.

 So, will such a mentor be the most suitable for me?

Your answer can be “yes,” or it could be “no.”

For example, a mentor who joined the organization not long ago could be the most helpful for a new employee. This mentor still remembers what problems face new employees, what concerns do they have.

If you just became a leader, someone who has been in charge for more than a decade could not be as helpful as someone who recently became a leader.

 Everything depends on the task of mentoring. Why do you need a mentor? Who do you want to become?

The most important thing is understanding the mentee’s situation and how the mentor can help the mentee best.

 It is enough if the mentor is more experienced in the field than the mentee, but it is undoubtedly unnecessary to look for the most famous and best mentor in the area.

A good mentor is not necessarily a person who has a lot of experience since the mentor could be way ahead of the mentee. The mentee might be unable to take as much as the mentor offers because they are way more advanced than the mentee.

It could be hard to communicate if the mentor is too high looking from the mentee’s point.

Look for a mentor above you who can still reach down and pull you up!

Mentoring, your second career

It’s the title of a published Harvard Business Review article, which after reading, I finally felt normal. Until then, I had some such doubts 😊. Well, friends and the environment created those doubts.

And really, I could never understand why another career and professional interest is just relaxing to me? Why when I come home in the evening or when I’m on vacation, I keep reading books on mentoring, business issues, and so on.

Probably for most, the thought of having to have at least two jobs at once doesn’t look very appealing? Well, unless we have to do so for financial reasons.

However, since my teenage years, I have already acquired the mindset that having multiple jobs at once is useful.

I watched a movie in which action took place in the United States.

There, one of the heroes had two or three jobs at the same time. One of them was the primary job, the other (others) a few hours a week. I don’t even remember what his main career was 😊. But I remember perfectly well that he traveled to the stadium and trained the kid’s football team in the evenings of the weekends.

The point is not what kind of careers he had. The point is that there were several different pages in his life. The story unfolded in such a way that he lost his main job. But here was the EUREKA moment for me. Because those other jobs allowed him to have some stability, some security. He was not one day suddenly left without any work, and he didn’t have to rush to look everywhere for any job. Those little side jobs became the guarantee that allowed him to put everything together calmly. He already had some clear choices about what direction he can go.

I grew up being taught that you should only have one professional career and have some hobbies. Go outside, play tennis, draw, breathe in some fresh air. However, having a second job was never popular in my environment.

At the time to me, it seemed like an extremely simple but also a fantastic discovery. Never trust one job 😊. Several jobs will provide stability and allow you to switch between them to rest from each. Like a hobby, but also a source of income.

I can’t confirm that I think about it on purpose later, however accidentally, my whole life, I have built up my professional career this way.

In preparation for studying at university, I noticed an opportunity to study either my chosen specialty or study in another program. Studying in that other program, I will acquire the same specialty I wanted and another additional one. So two things in the same four years. I realized that the quantity of the material to learn would also be double. But the opportunity to acquire a second specialty at the same time seemed just great. I would not have chosen that other field of study separately, but as a second profession, why not. Maybe it will be helpful at some moment in my life? From a time perspective, I have to say that it was worthwhile 😊.

And then, in the future, I usually had either at least two paid jobs or had only one income-generating job and volunteered a lot. So the volunteer job, while not revenue-generating, was a new experience. At the same time, it allowed me to rest and not think about the primary job anymore.

What are the benefits of multiple jobs noticed in the article of the Harvard Business Review?

-Skill Development

-Make Friends in Different Circles

-Discover Real Innovations

If you are not ready to have multiple jobs, you can try out mentoring. It’s precisely the perfect activity that allows you to learn and grow as a leader and a group member. At the same time, you could check if two (or more) jobs at the same time would work for you!

For the ending, please read one thought from my mentioned article, which talks about the charm and benefits of the two careers.

 “When you follow your curiosities, you will bring passion to your new careers, which will leave you more fulfilled. And by doing more than one job, you may end up doing all of them better”.

What learning style is typical for the mentor and the mentee?

Is it important to know?

I am talking to one of my group’s mentors about her situation with the mentee.

 Ema (mentor):

-With the mentee, we talked about everything together, we figured out the situation, we discussed the possibilities. It appeared to be very simple and straightforward. However,  my mentee failed. I realized that he did everything differently than what we agreed on. We discussed it again, but he told me that he still isn’t sure that he understands what I am talking about.

Sonata  (program manager):

-So what did you do? Because as I know, everything worked out for him!

Ema:

– Yes, he succeeded! While I was explaining the same thing again, I started drawing a scheme. And it’s happened! The mentee understood and connected all ideas. I realized that explanation and analysis by listening were complicated to understand for my mentee.  I didn’t know that visual learning style was best for him. My learning style is auditory. I understand things faster and easier when I hear them. Even though we discussed and planned many things at the start of the mentoring, we still forget this one attribute. It was our mistake that we didn’t talk about how we used to learn.

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Often I remember this dialogue when I’m listening to podcasts. They seem to be so practical! You can listen to them while walking or while on a bus, etc. However, I  don’t listen to podcasts often and instead focus on looking for articles. I enjoy reading, analyzing, and noting them down. Why? Because the visual and reading style of learning dominates for me.

The podcasts are not meant for me. I can listen to them, and I do it sometimes. However, I am not a big fan of them. Even when I am listening to them, I have to stop from time to time and write notes down. That’s why I wouldn’t say I like live events. I prefer recordings instead! 

At the beginning of the 21st century, learning styles were divided into Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. Later, was added the fourth category – Reading and Listening.

– Visual learning style. Learners understand a lot better from visual tools like graphs, schematics, multiple symbols – arrows, underlines, separating things with highlighting colors, etc.

! This is precisely the kind of mentee who mentor Ema mentored. Progress was massive after finding out that the mentee did well in visual learning. Instead of sitting down and talking or discussing, they immediately started drawing schematic sketches. That way improved their mentoring process and results.

– Auditory  (Vocal)  learning style. The people who use this learning style like to listen to recordings, podcasts or participate and work in groups. They also like to communicate by writing short messages. Even though they read these messages, it’s ok for them. It feels more like talking, not like reading.

! The “auditory” learner can repeat what was just said or ask a question that was just answered. They are doing that because they need to hear it again to understand it better and remember it.

 If you are talking about the same topic over and over again, maybe your mentee is an auditory learner?

– Reading/writing learning style. The people who use this learning style mainly focus on written information. The perfect source of information is books, articles, the internet, etc.

!  Let’s look on the internet! Is there more visual or written information?

Even though you will find both visual and written, it is evident that there is more written information. People who use this learning style can’t complain about the lack of information!.

– Kinesthetic (Physical)  learning style. These learners have to try and do everything by themselves. For them, the best way to learn is when they can manipulate or touch material. For example, to remember spelling words better if they write them several times.

Demonstrations, films, videos, case studies, workshops, and other practical activities help them a lot.

! Video topics, films are essential not for the visual style but the physical style!

– Multiple learning style. This is a learning style for people who don’t have a dominant specific learning style. Depending on the situation, they use one or the other.

!!!!!

! Study done by researchers say that most people use Multiple learning style:  35% – use 4 styles, 13% – use 3 styles, 15% – use 2 styles.

At first, the mentors need to understand which mentoring styles work best for the mentee. That helps them thinking about how they could improve communication and sharing the experience with the mentee.

Why?

It’s because you can give off information in your learning style automatically without realizing it. That maybe doesn’t work for the mentee. Precisely that is portrayed in the dialogue with the mentor at the start of this post.

Both the mentee and the mentor should understand their learning styles. They can discuss that and agree on how they both will work. The conversation about learning styles could help avoid strange, awkward, and even uncomfortable situations.

For example, if your mentee is asking the same question over and over again. Is it a strange situation? Maybe yes. But maybe your mentee is just an individual who uses an Auditory learning style, and he/she is not a distracted individual who can’t remember your answers😊 .

Have you ever had an experience that is related due to different learning styles?