The Powerful Benefits Of Mentoring

In both our business and personal lives, seeking to develop our skills, continually learn new things, and challenge ourselves on a regular basis comes with many rewards and benefits. 

This naturally takes a degree of devotion, with life often getting in the way of our self-improvement efforts. 

Having a mentor – that is, somebody who can help guide, advise and teach you through a problem or towards a goal – is one way to stay on track.

There are many different types of mentoring to choose from. Each with its own uses and benefits, meaning you can choose the type that’s right for you. 

Mentoring has the power to accelerate our self-development, career progression, and overall confidence. It’s therefore pretty surprising that only 37% of professionals have one, particularly as so many successful people praise and recommend mentorship.

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What are the benefits of mentoring?

The benefits of mentoring go way beyond the mentee’s personal development, positively affecting the mentors themselves, as well as the organisations they work for. From supporting inclusion through exposure to new perspectives to increased chance of promotion for both parties, the benefits of mentoring are vast.

This article will explore the full host of benefits for mentors, mentees, and businesses, as well as some more detailed benefits of mentoring with links to studies that support them.

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Benefits of mentoring for mentors

Being a mentor goes far beyond the rewarding feeling of 'giving back'. There are a range of personal development benefits that mentors gain from the experience, including:

• Increased self-confidence
• Increased self-awareness
• Leadership skill development
• Strong communication skills
• Art of delivering feedback
• Art of asking questions
• Becoming a good listener
• Exposure to new and different perspectives
• Growing a personal network
• Increased chance of promotion
• Increased job satisfaction
• Supporting another person
• Paying it forward
• Learning from someone else 

‍Another key benefit of mentoring for mentors is the effect on leadership mentoring has. Acting as a mentor means practising the core skills needed to be a successful manager, team leader and prepares you for senior leadership. 

The different types of mentoring can compliment leadership development too. In peer mentoring, for example, both mentoring parties will take turns acting as the mentor. This develops their skills in a equal and supportive mentorship. 

Reverse mentoring, on the other hand, gives junior employees the chance to have direct 1:1 access with senior leaders. They will act as mentors to leadership, providing vital up-skilling in areas such as digital literacy and cultural competency.

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Benefits of mentoring for mentees

Of course, mentees gain a lot from being mentored but it's not just career development as people tend to assume. Good mentor matching can lead to: 

• Increased self-confidence
• Increased self-awareness
• Develop strong communication skills
• Growing a personal network within the business
• Exposure to new and different perspectives
• Learn to self-reflect
• Improve goal-setting
• Learn from other's experiences
• Learn to ask good questions
• Being supported by someone
• Being advocated for
• Increased chance of promotion
• Increased job satisfaction

The mentee will also find support outside of line management, widening their networks and exposing them to new ideas and perspectives. Through access to leadership, mentoring provides mentees with opportunities to develop that they might not have in their day to day roles. 

Again, through the different types of mentoring, mentees can find a style that works for them. If you work best in a group, then group mentoring is a collaborative and social way to up-skill and develop together.

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Benefits of mentoring for an organisation 

The benefits of mentoring aren’t just for the mentoring participants. Organisations will benefit in a number of ways, making it a key area to invest in. Here are some of the top benefits: 

• Employee engagement
• Employee satisfaction
• Employee happiness
• Retention rates
• Promotion rates
• Attracting talent
• Representation in leadership
• Inclusive culture
• Increased productivity
• Breaking down silos

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To dive into some of these mentoring benefits a bit deeper, here is a break down by theme: 

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Benefits of mentoring for personal development

• Increased confidence: Whether it’s the ability to share ideas comfortably in meetings, or stand up for yourself in a challenging situation, people with mentors benefit from higher confidence in themselves. Mentors also experience an increase in self-confidence, as their mentee’s success reaffirms their abilities, resulting in a confidence boost.

• Higher self-awareness: Working out your goals with someone you look up to requires serious self-analysis around strengths, weaknesses, and values. As a result, those who have mentoring are more self aware than those who don’t – and self awareness is highly beneficial when it comes to career development.

• Exposure to new ways of thinking: For both mentee and mentor, the mentoring process exposes new ideas and revelatory ways of thinking or problem solving. This can have long lasting effects on both people in the partnership, encouraging innovation.

• Giving and receiving feedback: Feedback is something we should all want in order to improve, but probably don't ask for enough. Similarly, managers everywhere struggle with delivering feedback honestly and effectively. Mentoring helps people develop their relationship with feedback in a productive way.

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Benefits of mentoring for career development

• Promotions: Those who receive mentoring are promoted five times more often than people who do not have mentors.

• Job satisfaction: Reaching your goals makes you feel fulfilled and successful. With mentors often helping mentees achieve their career goals, job satisfaction naturally increases. Similarly, those who mentor consider their job more meaningful and therefore experience higher job satisfaction and fulfilment than those who don't.

• Personal network: Those with mentors benefit from growing their personal network outside of their colleagues. A mentor can introduce you to a whole range of inspirational and important people that may have an impact on your career later down the line.

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Benefits of mentoring for mental health

• Supporting isolation: People struggling with mental health issues often feel isolated and can experience severe anxiety about both their future and their own abilities. Mentalhealth.org.uk lists mentoring as a method of supporting mental health issues in the workplace, for both the mentor and mentee.
• Self-confidence: An increase in confidence can positively impact mental health, particularly as mentees feel supported in their decisions and career path. Mentors also experience improved self-esteem and confidence from the act of helping another achieve their goals, resulting in improved mental health.
• Lower levels of anxiety: Harvard Business Review conducted a study researching the positive effects of mentoring, and found that people who served as mentors experienced lower levels of anxiety, and described their job as more meaningful than those who did not mentor.

📖 Read more in our article: The Positive Impact of Mentoring on Mental Health 📖

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Benefits of mentoring for inclusion

• Exposure to new and different perspectives: Every conversation you have with someone who is from a different background and has a different lived experience, teaches you something. Whether it's specifically about the business you're in or about society in general, having the chance to learn and share with someone else in a safe space can be hugely impactful for inclusion.
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• Empathy, self-awareness, and cultural competency: If these conversations are happening at scale across your organisation, there will be an increase in empathy, self-awareness and cultural competency which can help foster a more inclusive workplace.
  
  
• Targeted initiatives that lead to change: Through types of mentoring such as reverse mentoring, organisations can run mentoring programs that are structured around change. In reverse mentoring, senior leadership is mentored by junior colleagues from under-represented or marginalised backgrounds. It can be used to increase cultural competency and to promote inclusion.

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Benefits of mentoring for business

• Positive company culture: A successful mentoring program fosters a culture of learning, nurturing, and growth. This will filter through the entire organisation and create teams of people who feel satisfied and happy at work.

• Diversity in leadership: Mentoring considerably helps minority representation at the management level, with many organisations using mentoring to increase gender and ethnic diversity in leadership roles.
  Read more: 🌈 How To Improve Diversity & Inclusion With Mentoring

• Knowledge sharing: Mentoring is an effective and low-cost way for senior employees to pass on knowledge of the industry and organisation to younger staff.

• Employee engagement and retention: With mentees and mentors feeling more satisfied and fulfilled at work than other employees, naturally mentoring has a positive effect of employee engagement and retention.

• Recruitment: Mentoring programs are an attractive work perk for many people, particularly millennials, who have come to expect mentoring and development opportunities from companies.

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There you have it! The powerful benefits of mentoring effect everyone involved, so if you don't have a mentor yet, speak to your company about programs they can put in place. Or if you are the person with that power, check out our guide to How To Start A Mentoring Program.

Interested in finding out more about how mentoring software can set up your mentoring programs for success? Book a chat with our team, we’d love to talk to you! 👇