What a Mentor Is and Why You Should Have One

What is a mentor?

A mentor acts as a coach or guide to support your academic, personal, or career development. Mentoring relationships typically involve a mentee who learns from the mentor and an experienced mentor who coaches and guides the mentee based on their experiences and perspectives. Generally, a mentor has experience the mentee hopes to learn from, so they can advise the mentee with their insights and expertise.

A mentor and mentee typically develop a personal, close, trusting relationship. This means that the mentee is comfortable asking questions, seeking and taking advice, and sharing personal information and goals. 

Read more: How to Find a Mentor and Grow Toward Your Goals

Types of mentoring

Mentoring can occur in the workplace (e.g., between a senior and less senior member of staff), in an academic setting, or throughout a personal journey. Regardless of the setting, mentorship may focus on career progression, personal development, or both. The mentoring process is flexible and changes according to the mentee's needs. 

Different types of mentoring suit different needs:

• Informal mentoring: Finding a mentor through your own connections

• Formal mentoring: Programs that you sign up for and that may focus on business, academics, or something more personal

• Peer mentoring: Mentoring offered between peers, often used for new members of a team or for people within an organization to mutually support each other through common issues

• Group mentoring: Meeting as a team with a common goal rather than a one-to-one mentoring relationship. Members typically have a range of seniority.

• Virtual mentoring: A mentoring relationship that takes place virtually or remotely due to differences in location 

• Reverse mentoring: Mentoring of a senior person by a junior individual, frequently on technology issues and tools 

Where you can find a mentor

Finding a mentor can be an informal process initiated by building relationships and networking with more senior professionals. Formal mentoring programs can also assign you a mentor. Both can yield positive results.

Networking and community

When it comes to informal mentorship, a mentee might initiate the relationship when they find someone they believe would make a good mentor. Alternatively, a mentor who believes they have something valuable to offer may reach out to the potential mentee. Building connections like this means the relationships aren’t monitored and are usually casual and friendly. A trusting, mutually beneficial relationship develops naturally, whereby the mentee learns from the mentor and receives support and guidance. The mentor benefits from giving something back, developing leadership and guidance skills, and learning more about themselves and their profession. 

Places to search for an informal mentor include senior colleagues at work, external professional connections, social media (LinkedIn) connections, and people in your personal network. 

Read more: What Is Networking? How to Grow Your Network

Formal mentoring programs

Mentoring programs involve a more formal structure than an informal mentoring relationship that you initiate yourself. However, this doesn’t mean that your relationship has to be formal. A mentoring program is a great way to meet volunteer mentors, and the relationship you build has the potential to be informal, friendly, supportive, and engaging as it develops. 

Many workplaces, colleges, and professional bodies run mentoring programs where you can sign up to find a mentor and begin a relationship with someone based on your goals and aspirations. For example, senior team members might mentor junior employees within an organization, or a professor at a university might mentor a PhD student. Mentoring programs tend to have monitored objectives with defined goals in mind. You can ask your university's HR department or admissions or counseling departments for formal mentoring resources.

You can also find online mentorship programs through which you can connect with a mentor in your field. These programs typically cost a fee and operate across virtual platforms.

Benefits of having a mentor

Learning from someone you respect and admire is a powerful way to gain essential knowledge and grow. Reasons to consider why you should have a mentor include:

• Learning new skills

• Receiving guidance from someone more experienced

• Having someone to confide in

• Building confidence

• Avoiding making mistakes

• Reaching career goals

• Increasing income

Mentors likewise benefit from these relationships, much as the mentee does. Benefits for the mentor include building leadership skills, giving something back, understanding your profession on a deeper level, enhancing your communication skills, and developing your coaching skills.

Mentoring skills: What makes someone a good mentor?

Mentors possess specific qualities that make them good at what they do. Their role is to support and guide the mentee; therefore, they need to communicate well and have excellent listening skills. Leadership is a big part of mentoring, but a mentor must support a mentee in drawing their own conclusions and making their own decisions. 

An important quality you should consider when choosing a mentor is how well you connect. Mentoring is a relationship, and you must be comfortable with each other to build an open, trusting relationship. 

How you can become a mentor

If you want to become a mentor, consider these factors and decide whether you would like to seek out an informal mentoring relationship or join a formal mentoring program:

1. Consider your offerings.

First, consider what you can offer and who would benefit from your skills and knowledge. Here are some questions to think about:

• Have you achieved senior levels in your professional field?

• Have you overcome something significant, and do you think that your insights will help someone going through a similar process?

• Have you reached academic heights, and can you support someone who has recently graduated? 

2. Know your goals.

Your own goals will have an impact on the type of mentoring relationship you choose. For example, a career mentor might help their mentee identify opportunities for professional progression, while a life mentor might provide advice on how to navigate difficult decisions surrounding personal and professional events. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• What is a mentor, and do you have what it takes?

• What do you want to get out of mentoring?

• Are you looking to develop your communication skills or leadership skills? Or are you simply looking to give something back?

3. Build your skills.

Mentors need specific workplace skills to build before beginning the mentoring process. Effective mentors have excellent communication skills, empathy, leadership and coaching abilities, and risk management skills. They can also constructively instruct and provide feedback to mentees. 

4. Put yourself out there.

If you take a formal mentoring approach, look for mentoring opportunities and ask your human resource department if your organization has programs in place. Starting your mentoring journey through an official mentoring program can match you with a mentee who needs your skills and experience. 

For informal opportunities, consider hosting professional development sessions, sharing experiences with those around you, and being an active listener for those around you.

Can you get paid for being a mentor?

People usually take on mentoring voluntarily, as part of a workplace mentoring program, or informally without payment. However, in some instances, mentors can earn salaries and benefits like health and dental insurance and paid sick leave.

You may be familiar with business coaches who charge for their time, but hiring a business mentor is possible. Business mentors tend to be experts in their fields, whereas a business coach may cover a larger area and may have worked in only some industries they coach in. Mentors advise and guide, whereas a coach is more about setting goals and accountability. Offering more specific expertise gives mentors a higher rate than coaches for their services.  

According to Glassdoor, the average US base salary for a mentor is $52,781 [1]. Compensation depends on the mentor, how much support they offer, and how valuable their mentorship is to their clients. 

Continue exploring mentorship on Coursera

Mentors provide tools and guidance that help their mentees succeed personally or professionally. Deciding to become or find a mentor is an important decision that involves considering your goals, what you hope to achieve with the relationship, and determining the right mentorship style for you.

If you want to become a mentor or a mentee but would like to enhance your mentorship skills, you can find helpful resources on Coursera. Start with the Improving Communication Skills course, delivered by The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. You can also explore the Strategic Leadership and Management Graduate Certificate offered by Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. This stackable certificate helps you meet the requirements for earning the full Master of Business Administration (iMBA), Master of Science in Accountancy (iMSA), and Master of Science in Management (iMSM) from the University of Illinois.