Mentoring could be considered the modern-day equivalent of apprenticeships. Both require an experienced professional taking a young person under their wing. But unlike apprenticeships, mentors need not engage in the same craft or industry as their mentee.
At a time when job functions are increasingly becoming more ambiguous and roles are requiring more cross-functional skills, learning from mentors of various fields broadens perspective; which is imperative to form a well-rounded individual.
I count myself lucky to have studied in a university with a very active mentoring program. Throughout my stay, I was matched to a handful of my professors; all professionals held in high esteem in their respective fields, be it chemistry, history, economics or literature.
Listed below are what I consider the fundamental lessons from my mentors and I believe will be quite helpful to the readers of this article:
- Know a lot about something, and a little about everything – A paraphrase of “jack of all trades, master of one”. Having a specialization gets us employed, gives us a paycheck, sure. But having a little bit of knowledge on topics outside our realm of expertise allows us to be well-rounded hence, more interesting. This then allows us to grow our network, which snowballs into a broader view of the world. Finally, this also increases empathy since we can see the angles that were not obvious when viewed from the lens of just what we majored in.
- Form good habits – I’ve observed that ‘successful’ individuals have some sort of routine they follow on a regular basis; whether it be waking up at 5 am, exercising for an hour a day, doing meditation at noon or only reading emails at a certain time. It makes good sense to lean on habits, specifically good ones so we keep some order, some structure to our day.
- Bring others with you – They say it’s lonely at the top–it wouldn’t be if we’d help pull and empower others up along our journey to success.
- Learning is a life-long process – This one is particularly memorable because a variation of which was mentioned by my school’s outgoing president during his commencement address. He said that though we were “no longer students of the university”, we are still “students of life”. A very eloquent way to say that there is still a lot more to learn and discover, not only about the world, but also about ourselves, our abilities and limitations.
Simple they appear to be, I have come to realize that most universal things are.
These learnings I picked up during my fortnightly mentoring sessions when I was a university student have served me well in the corporate world. In fact, I think these points have even served me better now since my colleagues have not had the same good fortune of having these inculcated in them earlier. Precisely why I share these now through The Mentoring Club.
