Would a mentor help you achieve more if you are already in an established career?

Hedda Bird investigates why the potential for mentoring to add value is often context dependent

Would a mentor help you achieve more if you are already in an established career?

There is a simple answer to this: Yes.  And No. Which of course means that the potential for mentoring to add value is often context dependent – so is it worth you investing time and energy in a mentor/mentee relationship if you are well established in your career?

Mentoring has been around for a long time, it is frequently a valuable activity, but perhaps not in the way people expect. A number of programmes exist to mentor people from under-represented groups to make the jump from senior manager into board or executive roles. The impact of these programmes can be measured, how many participants did make the jump compared to what might have been expected from a ‘control group’. Of course, entry to such highflyer programmes is often competitive, so it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy: find those with the best prospects, offer them additional help, watch the results pile in.  Maybe these people would have made the leap anyway.

So, though we can look at statistical evidence for the value of mentoring, that may not help you answer the question for yourself. Listen to the anecdotal stories of those who have worked with mentors, and you will hear conflicting stories. Individual experience ranges from ‘I will be eternally grateful’ through to ‘didn’t make much difference if I’m honest’.  Will working with a mentor add value to you?

What do you want a mentor for?

Almost at every stage of your career, a mentor can help you make progress. At the start of your career, mentoring is all about helping you navigate the world of work, many mentors can help a wide range of early-career colleagues. Once you are more established, the personal qualities, the relevant professional experience and maybe contacts of your mentor are more important.  You are not asking this person to help you do a good job – you know how to do that. So, what are you asking? Is it about how to get to the next level, or maybe you want a more sideways move – how you might deploy your capabilities in a different area? Or perhaps you are feeling stuck and are hoping a mentor will help you move on.

I worked with two mentors over my career. In both situations I was running a business, but my needs were quite different. The first mentor was instrumental in helping me move from a ‘hands on manager’ into a leader. The second mentor, some ten years later, helped me think about moving from organic growth into investment-led growth. Both mentors gave me challenging feedback and were generous with introducing me to contacts, yet they fulfilled very different needs.

Before you approach a mentor, think hard about what you want.  Then at your initial meeting, maybe explore what you think you want in more detail. If your conversation was illuminating and helpful to you, that’s a good sign its worth continuing.

Working with a mentor

Note the ‘working’ aspect of having a mentor. Of course, working with a mentor should be an enjoyable experience, but it also requires you to put some effort in. Showing up, listening, and then not acting on the advice is a waste of everyone’s time. If you are prepared to put some time in to act on advice, then that’s a good sign for moving forward.

Mentoring vs Door-opening

Some well-established professionals think that a mentor is simply there to open doors to new opportunities for them, preferably through a personal connection so that the hard graft of applying for a role can be skipped. This may occasionally happen, but you have to ask yourself why anyone would do that for you? And if your mentor opens one or two doors to no immediate effect, what happens then – do you both simply move on?  If you think that the only reason for having a mentor is for door-opening, you might do better investing your time in expanding your network rather than developing a mentoring relationship.

Coping with feedback

Assuming you choose to work with a mentor, you may well receive some feedback from them that you find challenging. As an established professional it can be hard to take feedback that suggests you have more to learn. You may have grown accustomed to feeling at the top of your game and resent anything that threatens your confidence. Such emotions are not unusual. If your mentor is not prepared for your reactions, you may both find it difficult to be honest, at least at first. When considering a mentor, ask them if they have had any training or guidance in how to be effective in this role. Good quality feedback that helps you play to your strengths is always useful. Being told you lack some hard to define ‘charisma’ or ‘presence’ is much less helpful. 

Women and people from minority ethnic groups, as well as the disabled are more often given ‘personality’ based feedback, rather than actionable ideas they can implement.  This is true at every level of organisations. Talk to a potential mentor before committing to work with them, listen to the quality of feedback they give you. If it doesn’t feel valuable, maybe look elsewhere.

Choosing a mentor in your own image

When thinking about a mentor in the established stages of your career you face a choice: do you want to work with someone who has faced the challenges you will face as you aim to move on; or do you want to work with whoever is a leader in the field regardless of their similarity to you?

There is no perfect answer to this question. If you are lucky, you might find someone who fulfils both categories. If not, you will need to think it through. Suppose you come from a minority racial group, and your mentor is a successful white middle-aged man who has belonged to an ‘elite’ group throughout his career. This man may never fully understand the barriers you will face in making progress, but may have a wealth of knowledge and contacts to share with you to help you navigate the path more easily. If your mentor is very much from your own background, you might find a deep affinity in your mutual understanding of the challenges you face. However, it might be harder to find such a mentor who also has the experience and contacts in the fields where you are working – by definition, there are fewer senior leaders from under-represented groups.

Mentoring isn’t forever

It’s good practice to put a time limit on mentoring.  Make a plan together of what you would like to change as a result of the mentoring relationship, and give yourselves a reasonable amount of time to deliver it.  Once delivered, it may be time to call a halt, and simply stay in touch. If you and your mentor get on so well you become friends beyond the working relationship, that’s great too.