Ready for a Career Boost? These Mentorship Options Will Fit Your Busy Lifestyle
A relationship with an experienced mentor is a great way to advance your career. But if you have a busy work schedule, how do you find the time to nurture a mentoring relationship? The post Ready for a Career Boost? These Mentorship Options Will Fit Your Busy Lifestyle appeared first on AllBusiness.com The post Ready for a Career Boost? These Mentorship Options Will Fit Your Busy Lifestyle appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Emily Moorhead.
All entrepreneurs and businesspeople will agree—a mentorship can be a great way to advance your career. But if you have a busy work schedule, a side hustle, a family life, and some hobbies, how do you find the time to nurture a mentoring relationship?
“If you’re learning from someone who has already succeeded in that area of their life, then you not only learn from what they’ve done right, you learn from their mistakes as well, without having made them yourself,” says Simon Arias , owner and founder of Arias Agencies, a representative of American Income Life Insurance Company.
If you think about mentoring in this way, it’s not only valuable but also time-saving because you can learn from the experiences of others without having to go through the experiences yourself. But, how can you fit mentorship into your busy schedule?
Your local small business association
If you don’t belong to your local small business association, what are you waiting for? For a small membership fee, you get access to meetings, special events, resources, and networking opportunities. As far as mentorship, many small business association chapters host “speed dating”-type events to help people find mentors. If that’s not your style, try attending a few events or meetings and try to network and develop relationships with other members.
Use groups on LinkedIn
It’s easy to find and join groups that pertain to your interests on the popular professional networking site. You can (and should!) join groups associated with your college, industry, job role, volunteer/nonprofit interests, hobbies, and more. Within your industry it’s likely that there are groups dedicated to mentorship, professional advice, and personal experience.
When you join groups, actively participate in the discussions by contributing relevant facts and opinions, and by interacting with other members. If you find someone whom you’d like to talk more with, send them a short, professional message introducing yourself and explaining why you’d like to pick their brain.
Interacting with groups and finding a mentor on LinkedIn are great ways for people to access professional development from their smart phone and during all hours of the day.
Use a mentor matching site
Online mentor matching skips all the formalities and goes straight to the point: You’re looking for a mentor and you want to find someone that has knowledge in your industry so you can collaborate and learn. There are many different mentor matching sites to suit your needs, some general and some niche.
There are student-centered mentorship sites such as iCouldBe and iMentor , women-focused sites such as Mogul , and more general sites such as Find a Mentor. If you have a busy schedule and prefer to chat online, a mentor matching site may be right for you.
Join a subscription service
Subscription boxes have enjoyed a big boom over the past few years and mentorship is no exception. MentorBox offers a monthly subscription that includes curated books, book summaries, accompanying worksheets, access to videos/lectures, and access to online groups. It also has themed packages for specific goals such as mind-set, leadership, entrepreneurship, happiness, and money. The boxes allow you to get real mentorship from successful business people, but on your time.
MentorBox and other subscription services are perfect for people who learn from reading and may only have segmented fragments of time to dedicate to professional development.
Join local mastermind groups
Several of the benefits of having a mentor could also be achieved by belonging to a diverse group of peers with a similar drive and focus. Mastermind groups are small, formal groups of people, usually consisting of friends, coworkers, and friends of friends, who have regular meetings, have professional discussions, and hold each other accountable.
There may be mastermind groups advertised at your local small business association, or you could ask a couple of buddies to grab some professional friends to meet up over pizza and form a group. A quick Google search reveals many different resources and articles that can serve as activities and discussions for your group. Joining a mastermind group allows you flexibility and a close-knit atmosphere.
It may be difficult to fit mentorship into your busy schedule, but if you’re passionate about advancing your career, mentorship is incredibly important. A good mentor can offer you advice, motivation, and a sense of security and belonging. There are many options to fit a beneficial mentor relationship into your busy schedule, whether it be local, on the internet, or through a subscription service.
The post Ready for a Career Boost? These Mentorship Options Will Fit Your Busy Lifestyle appeared first on AllBusiness.com Click for more information about Emily Moorhead.
