Mentoring shouldn’t stop at any level
Flickr:Distona
Developing your skillset should be a consideration throughout your career. Even when you are at the top, it’s always wise to seek another perspective. Admitting there’s always more you can learn is one of the first steps to pushing your career to greater heights.
Equally, it’s easy to see how mentoring can be beneficial for new recruits who are learning the ropes, or members of staff who are skilled in one particular area but need assistance in another.
You can look for a mentor from within your organisation, or by following influential people on social media sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter. From admiring the way someone approaches their work, someone who’s a step up the ladder, or even an industry leading light, identifying a mentor can give you fresh insight on your own workplace goals as well as pointing the way to new opportunities within your company.
But it’s not necessary to find a mentor from a prescriptive position, such as a senior IT tech manager with more experience. The important point is that your mentor should have the right experience at any level to help align the goals of your department with those of the wider business.
Finding a mentor from outside your department, whether it’s a junior who knows about a new social networking platform, an intern who likes a new app, or a thought leader who dishes out business wisdom on Twitter, you will not only learn something new, you may pick up new ways to make your department work for the whole company.
