Leadership Question
What would you say if I told you mentoring builds better leaders? It’s been researched and proven that mentoring others makes you a better leader.
When mentors share their expertise and operational knowledge with other employees (including those they do not manage), it can build their credibility within their company.
Why?
A leader’s willingness to build up employees shows confidence in the leader’s own competence and indicates strong leadership. It also builds trust because they support the success of their subordinate employees.
Mentoring Builds Better Leaders
If you’re in a leadership role, you didn’t arrive at that level on your own. Someone at some point mentored you and helped shape you into the people manager you have become. Having a mentor can make all the difference when it comes to being an effective leader. Being a mentor helps pay forward the help you’ve been given and the career’s worth of knowledge you’ve accumulated.
Mentoring others makes you a better leader because it helps you:
- Teach a wider range of skills
- Motivate new leaders
- Keeps you grounded
Mentoring Teaches More than the Obvious
But, coaching an up and coming leader requires more than basic skills. Teaching someone to do a task in and of itself is a great thing to do. Passing on traditions and skills has been a form of teaching for generations. Mentoring someone in leadership surpasses practical skills and includes esoteric skills that go beyond the technical aspects of a trade. Mentoring teaches the psychological and inter-personal skills that make great leaders. Another reason why mentoring builds better leaders.
Mentoring Motives New Leaders
Part of the role of leadership is motivating others. Getting them excited about the possibilities and feeling confident about what they can accomplish. Mentoring new leaders is the epitome of motivating. Sure, you’ll have to cover the challenges of leadership- which are many, but overall you can help motivate a new leader to be their best. This in turn, motivates you and helps remind you of the benefits of being a leader as well.
Mentoring Keeps Leaders Grounded Also
Being in leadership should be humbling. Serving others is what leadership is all about. Being a leader has perks and advantages, but it also has tough realities those who aren’t in leadership don’t have to face. Mentoring others keeps you grounded and reminds you that leadership is an important responsibility and that the well-being of those you lead is in a leader’s hands.
Mentoring is a wonderful way to sharpen your leadership skills and transform you as a leader. Instructing up-and-coming leaders the nuances of their roles can help them become better leaders in a shorter amount of time. Remember those who taught you along the way and be sure to pay it forward to the people you are fortunate enough to impact. Your teaching time can be learning time for you too because your mentee will surely have something new to teach you as well. Celebrate your mentees and help them achieve their best by mentoring them and pouring into their futures.
Summing Up
Mentoring builds better leaders because, put simply, it brings the best out of the people you lead. Great leaders who mentor inspire their team members to go beyond what they might do on their own. Mentoring generates confidence, inspires trust and enhances team development. A big part of your own leadership development is determining what sort of a leader you want to be and mentoring other up-and-coming employees.