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Why You Need a Professional Mentor

You’ve been told you have amazing potential. You hit all your projects out of the park, and your performance reviews glow like the lights on the Jumbotron. You’re the one who’s supposed to go places. But something has kept you from joining the big leaguers at the top of the corporate ladder.

That something: not having a mentor.

See, as capable as you are, there’s only so much you can teach yourself! Pairing with a mentor is like working with a seasoned tour guide willing to help you reach your professional potential. A mentor can streamline your professional journey by tapping into their knowledge, experience, and best practices collected over a career.

Here are four ways a mentor can help you achieve greater success:

They know people. …and can introduce you. Whether you need a question answered or a lead on a new job, LinkedIn never did so much for your connections as this one person can.
They know YOU. The right mentor can help you identify skills others may not have noticed, or that you didn’t notice yourself. The more your mentor works with you and gets to know you, the better your mentor can help you discover your talents and put them to their best use. And what’s better, your mentor will tell you the truth, even when it may be hard to hear. It’s their job to clue you in on what’s working in your approach and what isn’t.
They know what it takes to succeed. As the saying goes, a mentor is someone whose hindsight can become your foresight. In a mentor, you access a career’s worth of knowledge—successes and failures—rolled into one person. And because they know you and they know your industry and how to get ahead in it, your mentor can offer you specific advice on how to advance yourself. They can also pick you up from your mistakes and help you learn from them.
They keep you moving forward. Your mentor knows what it takes to succeed, and can steer you toward greatness with honesty, encouragement, and perspective. As you learn from your mentor, you’ll continue to move forward with new knowledge, instead of stagnating or sliding back to past practices. Mentors keep you learning and growing, and moving forward because they expect the best of you—and they will tell you so!

With a mentor, you don’t step up to bat alone! You have a savvy coach to help you recognize when to push forward and when to ease up. You’ll learn when to race for home, and why that attempt at a stolen base didn’t work out. Pairing with a mentor can give you the perspective and guidance you need to be your professional best and to get your name in the Hall of Fame. So who wants to join your team?

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