The road to mentorship is always challenging. It has its share of pitfalls, so it makes sense to review the op-ed on “what are the three A’s of mentorship?”Whether you are looking to jumpstart your career, set up a new company, or, even better, take over one, you will need someone to guide you. And that’s what a mentor does, enabling you to make the right decisions regarding your career.
When it comes to launching your own business or trying a new career, there would be several keys, pivotal steps you would have to take. And a mentor can guide you and help you make the right call. That’s all the more reason you need to review “what are the three A’s of mentorship?” to get a better idea of what’s involved in the process.
You should look closely at several classic examples of mentor-mentee, starting with Steve Jobs – Bill Gates. While Bill Gates created and developed his Microsoft Windows, Steve Jobs played a pivotal role in guiding him.
Similarly, you can even attribute Mahatma Gandhi’s burgeoning friendship with the Mountbattens as one of the reasons why India won her freedom, though that point is debatable. Either way, you need to check out some of the essential points of mentorship.
- Availability:
When it comes to choosing a mentor, one of the critical factors is determining if the person is available to mentor you. Mentorship is not a short-term training period; it takes up most of the person’s time.
And that’s why, before you jump the gun and select a person as your mentor, you first need to determine if the person in question can provide you with the mentorship you require.
When it comes to a mentor-mentee relationship, a one-to-one working relationship would be the perfect formula to base your mentorship. For starters, your mentor must make himself available and even set aside a particular time each day to guide you.
Granted, mentorship is not something any person can take lightly. They would have to put in the requisite experience and training to be able to guide you along. And that’s what you are looking for here – a professional who can set aside the required time to help you navigate the intricacies of a corporate career.
- Active listening:
One of the critical requirements that a mentor needs to have to be able to guide you is that he must be able to listen actively to whatever you communicate. Sounds easy, right? You would be surprised at how hard ‘active listening’ can be, for real.
Think back to the last time you bothered to ‘listen actively’ to one of your colleagues. Can you recall who that person was and what was their pressing and immediate concern? Nope? Well, that should encapsulate how hard ‘active listening’ is and what it is all about.
Your mentor would be able to guide you only if he listens actively to all your pressing concerns. This does not mean you get to bring up trivial issues with your mentor and then claim that he does not have the time to discuss such items.
A mentorship relationship is not for discussing trivial matters or the sort you can handle. Instead, it is to glean important information from a real professional on advancing your career while overcoming various hurdles.
One way to determine if the mentor you have chosen for the task is the right person is to hold a few discussions with him. Usually, the mentor would avoid close-ended questions and dead ends and devise various viable suggestions.
- Analysis:
When selecting a mentor, you should focus on one of his fundamental abilities – his exceptional analytical skills. Since your time with the mentor on a one-on-one basis would be limited, you need to make the best use of the time left.
And that’s why you require a mentor who has exceptional analytical skills and can give you the lowdown on specific facts within minutes. It would be best if you essentially had a mentor who can analyze the facts, determine various solutions and opt for one tailored to meet your needs.
Remember that these are the three bases of any good mentorship, and you must ensure your mentor fulfills all the fundamental conditions. You need to find out if your mentor has the required time to spend training you.
You may also want to check out and find out if he is an active listener who can listen to your concerns. Importantly, determine ifif he can carry out a detailed analysis within minutes of getting all the facts.
If he fulfills all these primary conditions, then you have found the right person to be your mentor. Always double-check to make sure that the selected person, fulfils the required criteria, for being your Mentor. Good luck!
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