Mentorship is one of the aspects that have been significantly overlooked in terms of improving leadership skills. One may not know it, but it is one way of fast learning and discovering suppressed strengths. That said, below are some ways that mentorship helps individuals to become better leaders;
It Improves Storytelling Abilities
Mentoring is never about telling people to do `this and that` every time. Many at times, they need to be shown potential possibilities and platforms of becoming successful. For instance, stories come in handy to provide an engaging and exciting working environment established on mutual trust. In essence, leaders may hold back sharing their life experiences, with the fear of familiarity. They miss out on building relationships in addition to polishing their storytelling skills.
Mentoring Expands a Leader’s Perspective
Leaders need to see things clearly and beyond the abilities of regular employees. As such, they need to gather guidance and experience from individuals in various industries. These may include millennials, people with disabilities, and those with more experienced backgrounds in their career fields. The leaders would also learn to appreciate the different views and opinions that such mentors have, with the primary intent of enriching their thinking.
It Sharpens One’s Listening Skills
Sometimes active listening is a challenge for many individuals. While they may have a better experience than the people working under them, they find it challenging to give people their undivided attention, even for the shortest time. Mentoring trains such leaders on how to focus their attention when others are presenting various ideas and opinions.
One Learns by Doing
Mentors have valuable practical tools to help leaders become better. They also employ several activities and relevant suggestions for the realization of the same goal. As mentoring isn’t just about telling people what to do, leaders get to emulate how particular things are done by watching their role models do them. They learn to become more proactive and eager to participate in events and activities that would prepare them for the achievement of future goals.
Moreover, mentors know how to pull up leaders from their comfort zones to be more productive. The mentors also draw them to better environments that are more goal and service-oriented. In turn, leaders get a more natural platform to present the problems that they encounter to gain advice.
