What is a professional mentor?

"Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximize their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.”  -Eric Parsloe, Oxford School of Mentoring & Coaching

A professional mentor is an experienced and trusted person who can provide an individual (mentee) who has less experience, advice related to topics that help the mentee develop their own professional brand, career pathway, or solutions to day to day challenges within the work environment.  A mentor can be enlisted as a professional coach to educate, motivate and constructively critique a mentee.  A good mentor understands the value of wisdom and knowledge and has a strong desire to pass it along to others.

Why have a professional mentor in your corner?

• Provide insight on professional development to ensure your success roadmap (career pathway) leads you to your desired career goals
• Help to set SMART goals and hold the mentee accountable to encourage achievement
• Develop leadership skills and provide feedback
• Enhance self-awareness and soft skills associated with adaptability, teamwork, emotional intelligence and communication
• Provide encouragement when life and work gets tough
• Build confidence in problem-solving abilities.
• Broaden network of professional contacts and enable exploration of new opportunities
• Enable life-long learning from others’ experience and not just what is in a book