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By Allison Manzi
Building the right credentials and gaining the right experience is key to our future success. I worked as a national talent recruiter in NYC and I can tell you that prospective employers and collaborators look at much more than just the topical relevance of your experience on paper. We also look at what those choices say about you as a person, and what other personal skill sets you would have gained along the way.
Choosing to become a mentor has an extremely high payoff for enhancing not only your resume, but your personal skills and your character. Programs like I’RAISE give you the opportunity to enrich yourself in more ways than one:
Learn to Lead
Leadership skills are invaluable in any work setting (and in life!). You are the
teacher in a mentor/mentee relationship, which means you will be in charge of
leading your mentee and will be required to make decisions and guide the flow of
development.
This also means you will reflect on your moral values and beliefs as you start to
relay them to another, and will naturally refine your character as you filter it
through the eyes and ear of your mentee. You’ll strengthen your moral compass
and values which will enable you to lead with a clear purpose in the workplace or
other future endeavors.
As the leader, you will have to strategize with problem solving on your own since
you won’t have a superior to pass off any obstacles to. You’ll learn how to work
through problems on a one on one basis and work with an individual to help them
isolate their unique learning challenges and persevere--a crucial skill set for a
future company leader!
Build Empathy
Working one on one with a mentee on their personal journey is very different than working with a co-worker or employee on a work-related challenge. You will see the vulnerability in another and see the struggle and difficulty that stands behind someone's inability to complete a task or show up for a responsibility.
Empathy is another key trait in being able to solve problems and relate to the humans you work with, versus seeing them as task masters. This kind of understanding and enlightenment will help you connect to others and find solutions that are truly helpful and effective and reflect the real problem, vs trying to push or threaten someone into performing.
Demonstrate Integrity
Mentorship is a volunteer effort and shows you have the integrity to contribute even without reward & compensation. It shows you genuinely care about helping which is the kind of person that everyone wants on their team! Wouldn’t you? Doing a good deed for your own intrinsic desires is proof of character which is an indispensable trait
in someone you want to hire. Integrity is something that can't be taught which makes it far more valuable than any educational assets. Integrity shows a certain level of ready-made trust, which makes for a great collaborator, teammate or employee.
Mentorship offers both internal and external rewards. From the outside, you will earn respect and trust and admiration for devoting your time to helping others and knowing how to lead another.
On the inside, the practice of working closely with another will develop your character and help you dive deeper into connecting with others. That skill set alone will help you move through the world with greater ease and authenticity--a natural segue to success.
Joining I’RAISE as a mentor will not only better your life, but may completely change someone else’s. We call that a win-win! Sign up to today to get closer to a better tomorrow.