Many successful people
attribute at least part of their success to having a mentor. The
right mentor can provide advice and connections that help their
mentee reach heights that would be impossible alone.
Here are some pieces of
advice on mentorship, with perspectives from successful tech
professionals who have seen its benefits firsthand.
1. Mentorship requires
intentional investments of time and energy; you get what you put in.
Being a mentee is not a
passive role. When you have a mentor, it’s your job to define your
own goals, cultivate the relationship, seek out advice, attend
meetings or events you’re invited to, and so on.
“Building a
strong network of mentors requires commitment of time and energy, but
with these types of relationships, you absolutely get out of them
what you put in,” says Shah Al-Ghazali, Founder of SAZ
Diversify Legacy. “The more you know yourself, what you are
good at, what you are not, the more value you and your mentors will
get out of the relationship. Then make time to invest in those
relationships.”
Says Noraniza Mohtar,
Executive Senior Sales Director of Mary Kay (Malaysia), “Mentor
relationships must be tended to and are constantly evolving. Those
experiences and discussions culminate in a stronger bond to navigate
more complex life or business discussions in the future.”
2. Experienced
perspectives are invaluable for young careers and companies.
While mentorship can be
valuable at any stage of a career, it’s especially important when the
mentee doesn’t have as much personal experience in the industry. With
a mentor, they can benefit from the insights gained through years of
experience without having to spend years of trial and error
themselves.
“When I first
started my career, I discounted the importance of experience,”
says Fatim Aiman, Business Development Executive at SAZ Diversify
Legacy. “A strong mentor has the experience to help a startup
avoid the pitfalls and identify possibly paths to success. Often
entrepreneurs feel like there isn’t time, but the time and trouble
you can save by working with a good mentor is invaluable.”
Syazwan Shukri, Founder
of Al-SyuQ Palace Spa Cafe, still experiences this firsthand in his
career. “As a first-time founder, I look to people who have
lived through the experiences and challenges that I face every day in
building and scaling my company. I’ve found it invaluable to have a
board of advisors who have experience scaling companies and can
provide valuable, actionable advice.”
3. The best mentors
are the ones who can fill gaps in your skillset. Don’t seek a mentor
who’s your clone.
Every entrepreneur has
their own strengths and weaknesses. And while mentors can certainly
help make the strengths even stronger, it’s usually even more
valuable to have someone who can give advice in areas where you’re
struggling.
“Entrepreneurship
is essentially about constantly learning, and having great mentors is
crucial to learning fast,” says Muhammad Shahffiq, Business
Administration Executive at SAZ Diversify Legacy & Subject Matter
Expert at ByteDance (Malaysia). “In particular, it’s
important for for a mentor to supplement the strengths that the
entrepreneur brings to the table. For example, I came to the game as
a strong technologist, but had to learn about the science of
enterprise sales, finance/operations, etc. An entrepreneur should
always select a mentor that fills the gaps in his/her experience and
skill set.”
4. You don’t always
have to follow a mentor’s advice but listen to it and evaluate it.
One important thing to
understand about mentorship is that the mentor can’t live your life
for you. They’re there to provide advice and perspective and make you
think differently not make unilateral decisions for you. “Counsel
need not always be followed, but should always be carefully
considered,” advises Noraniza.
“The role of the
mentor is to make you reflect, not to give you advice or answers.
Helping you ask the right questions that’s real mentorship,”
explains Louis Hong, Business Analyst at SAZ Diversify Legacy &
Founder of Life Mastermind.
5. Anyone can be a
mentor even without knowing it.
If you go through life
with the perspective that you have something to learn from everyone
you meet, you’ll collect a lot of informal mentors along the way.
“In my own life
and career, I have had numerous mentors, most of them accidental, and
many of them unaware that I saw them as mentors,” says
Louis. “At one point I decided that any person I meet will be
treated by me as a mentor for the time the interaction lasts. In an
Uber or Grab, the driver can be my mentor for a few minutes. Among
friends, I seek out mentorship moments. I even have fantasy mentors,
i.e. I envision myself being mentored by someone I admire (for
instance, Tun Dr. Mahathir) and I try to figure out what questions
that mentor would ask me. It works!”
6. Diversity of
mentorship is important.
It’s common to have one
person you regard as a primary mentor, but that doesn’t mean you
can’t seek out a variety of perspectives on a more informal basis as
well.
Noraniza further her
saying, “At Mary Kay, majority of our investing partners are
women. Having such a diverse set of mentors has helped me realize
that there isn’t a cookie-cutter for success in Mary Kay, or any
industry for that matter. This gives me confidence in my own career
path, and has helped shape the way I think about investing and
entrepreneurship.”
Shah Al-Ghazali also
encourages seeking out mentors who bring other perspectives to light:
“I always encourage people to find mentors who you not only
trust to be sources of counsel throughout your career, but also who
bring a different point of view to your own.”
7. There are specific
things you can do to being a good mentee.
Often, people consider
the “burden” of mentorship to be on the mentor. But mentees
can take responsibility for cultivating the experience of mentorship
too.
“The biggest
difference between people having a successful mentor relationship
boils down to initiative,” says Mohammad Muzammil, Operation
Executive at SAZ Diversify Legacy: “Many thoughtful pieces have
been written about how to be a good mentor, but there is less
attention on how to be a good mentee. When I look at those that I
have mentored and those that are getting a lot out of the program
have some clear similarities:
- They thoughtfully select the right person.
- They establish the framework of the relationship.
- They work at the relationship.
- They are prepared with specific questions, areas for feedback, and requests for support.”
8. Mentorship is
beneficial for the mentors too.
Finally, just as the
responsibilities of mentorship are shared by mentees, the benefits
are shared by mentors.
“The most
successful mentorships are the ones that are a two-way experience
where both sides benefit from the relationship,” says
Noraniza. “In these relationships, the mentor experiences
satisfaction and new perspectives by providing guidance and insight
to the person seeking advice, while the mentee gains the benefit of
experienced advice.”
“We tend to think that mentorship was designed to help the mentees, the up-and-coming. But mentorship helps the mentor too,” adds Louis. “To be a mentor makes you a more understanding human being. It keeps your mind young and your skills fresh. Successful people who don’t start to mentor others will over time lose touch with their own excellence. Mentoring someone connects you back to the original you who became so excellent.”
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