In this episode Sarah explores the power of mentorship in career growth. She shares the key benefits of having a mentor, how to identify what you need from a mentoring relationship, and practical ways to find the right mentor for you. Whether you're looking for guidance, career development, or industry connections, mentorship can be a game-changer. Learn how to take a proactive approach to finding and working with a mentor!

Show Notes:

[00:00] – Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable and introduction to the episode

[02:00] – Why mentorship is your career secret weapon & why so few people have mentors

[03:00] – The research: 76% of professionals believe in mentorship, but only 37% have one

[04:00] – 12 key benefits of mentorship, including career growth, networking, confidence-building, and navigating leadership challenges

[06:00] – Sarah’s personal experience with mentors & how they helped her career transitions

[08:00] – How to identify what you need from a mentor (role model, industry expertise, networking, leadership support, etc.)

[09:00] – Finding the right mentor: Industry fit, seniority, chemistry, and shared values

[10:30] – Different routes to finding a mentor: Workplace programs, LinkedIn networking, professional groups, and mentorship platforms

[12:00] – How to build a connection and approach a potential mentor with confidence

[13:00] – Setting up a successful mentorship relationship: Time commitment, expectations, and boundaries

[14:00] – The value of becoming a mentor yourself and how it benefits your career

[15:00] – Final thoughts, free career resources, and how to stay connected

Useful Links

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Join The Love What You Do Facebook Group

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

You’re capable of more than you know. Shine brightly, lead boldly, and be unstoppable!

Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

2

leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

5

I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 18.

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I'm really glad you're here today.

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We're going to talk about how a

mentor can help you in your career.

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What I thought we'd talk about is

some of the benefits to having a

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mentor and then what you can do to

identify what it is you want and how

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you can find the right mentor for you.

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Because when I was looking at this

there's not much information that out

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there about how you can find a mentor.

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Often it's about how you

set up a mentoring scheme

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or how you can be a mentor.

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So I thought it'd be useful to

do this today around mentoring,

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because it really is your secret

weapon in your career arsenal.

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There was some research done, I

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3, 000 professionals, and I think

around 76 percent said they I thought

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having a mentor was a great idea,

but only 37 percent actually had a

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mentor, which is surprisingly low.

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I think, there's not that many people out

there who've organized a mentor and it

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can really boost your career having one.

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You don't have to wait for your

organization to find one for

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you or to have it as part of

some career development program.

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You can be proactive in deciding

you want to have a mentor and

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finding the right person for you.

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And that's what we're

going to talk about today.

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What are the benefits to having a mentor?

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I've come up with about 12 but

I'm sure there's probably ones

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that I haven't thought of.

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Certainly there's that

encouragement and support.

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for your own growth and development.

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We do have to be agents

in our own development.

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So having someone there that can support

you with that and get you to think

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about the areas that you might need

to focus on or that you have gaps in

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terms of where you want to be taking

your career can be incredibly useful.

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Similarly, if you're in a leadership

role or you're moving into a leadership

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role, having a mentor to help navigate

the challenges of leadership can be

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incredibly useful as well if they've

already done that walked that walk.

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Mentors can give you feedback on

your behavior or your performance.

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So you're not in a managerial sense,

but in terms of learning, learning

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sense, particularly if they're

working in your organization.

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They can also be a great sounding board

for ideas or for innovation in your area.

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And they can also help

challenge your thinking.

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So get you to look at things

from different perspectives.

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You can learn from the experience

that they have as well.

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, they can be advocates for you within your

organisation or within your industry.

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And they can also connect you with

people who can be useful in your career.

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They can open doors for you.

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And they can also be inspiring.

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They can be a role model that you can

feel shares the same values as you and

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are doing the role that you want to

be doing at some point in your career.

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Plus they can help build your confidence

and your self awareness, which is, key

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in terms of moving your career forward.

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Then they can also be useful

if you're moving into a new

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role or you're moving into a new

field or having a career change.

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I have had two mentors in my career.

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One was when I was in my HR career and

I'd got a new role as an HR manager,

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but it was a standalone HR role.

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I was setting up the HR function.

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I had a mentor who was an HR

director in a sister organization.

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And he was just great at giving me

that support, that space to be able

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to think about the ideas that I had

for the HR function and also how

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to navigate some of the challenges

and the loneliness of being the

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only HR person in the organization.

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So I found it incredibly valuable.

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And then the second time I had a mentor

was when I changed career and became

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a career coach working in a social

enterprise, and I had a peer mentor then.

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So that was another career coach in the

organization who was more experienced

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than me, who really helped me.

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Navigate that transition from being

an HR director to being a career

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coach and starting essentially all

over again with a new field, new

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language, new way of being really.

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And she helped me make that

transition faster, and feel supported

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in a very busy organization.

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I'm a real advocate for mentors,

both formal and informal.

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If you're interested in having a mentor,

the first thing to do is to think about

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what you need from that relationship.

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Why do you want a mentor?

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What do you want to get

from that relationship?

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And it could be a combination of

the things I've just mentioned

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in terms of the benefits.

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You could be looking for

it for, a role model.

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It could career development, filling

the gaps, getting more experience.

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It could be the access to networks and

contacts, or it could be that sounding

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board, challenging ideas, innovation.

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It could be a combination, but being

clear about what you want from

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it will help you then be clearer

about who's going to be the best

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person to give you what you need.

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Which is my second point , which is to

be clear about your mentor's background.

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What do you want them to have in terms

of experience or approach for it to

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be a good productive relationship.

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So thinking about do they

need to be in your industry?

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Do you want them to have

expertise and knowledge in the

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area that you're working in?

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Or actually do you want somebody

different who's going to be working

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in an aligned field or a different

field who can give you a different

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way of thinking and approaching some

of the ideas or your way of working?

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also thinking about the seniority.

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Do they need to be somebody

who is more senior to you?

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And how far from you

do you want them to be?

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Do you want them to be just that one

level up as I had with the HR director?

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Or do you want them to be significantly

further in their career than you?

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Or do you feel actually a peer mentor

is something that you would benefit for?

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Thinking about the background

of your mentor, but also the

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chemistry because chemistry is

always important in a relationship.

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So thinking about what do you respond

best to, what kind of behaviors Do you

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respond to or, values to do they need

to embody the same values that you have

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in order for that relationship to work.

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Being clear about background, but also

about chemistry that you want from the

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mentor to and what you can start to think

about then is, the routes to finding

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your mentor because there are different

routes and you can experiment with them.

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So you can start off by thinking , is

there somebody in my organization?

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Do I know somebody who I've seen and I'm

impressed with, I feel inspired by, that

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they share my values that I would like

to be mentored as I said, maybe doing the

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role that you want to be doing either.

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now or in the near future.

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And then you can think about making a

direct approach to them, or you could

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talk about it with your line manager

as part of your career development.

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You could broach the subject that you'd

like to have a mentor, because your line

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manager will know you, they'll know your

style and your personality, and they'll

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also have contacts in your industry.

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If you are thinking of an industry.

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So they could be the perfect person

to be that bridge to introduce you to

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somebody who could be a mentor for you.

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And similarly, it's worth

investigating if your organization

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has any formal mentor schemes.

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Chatting with your HR department about

whether there are any formal mentor

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opportunities within the organization.

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But then also you've got your own

networks and LinkedIn is also a

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great resource for finding people.

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You can start doing some research

around who your possible mentor could

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be, in terms of either industry,

companies they're working for, jobs

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that they're doing their visibility.

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in your sector.

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And there could be people known

to you or people unknown to you.

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It's doing some research and starting

to notice people who you feel could

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fit the criteria that you have.

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And then there are also trained mentors.

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There are, portals that

link people who want to be a

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mentor with potential mentees.

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And, the advantage to that is that

person's already thought about becoming

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a mentor, they might already have been

a mentor previously, they understand

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how the relationship works, and they are

trained in terms of understanding how to

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provide the right support, ask the right

questions, and get the best out of you.

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You could do some research

around some of those organizations

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that, that link people.

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I've got a couple for you here.

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There's one called mentorsme.

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co.

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uk and that puts small business owners

in touch with business people as mentors.

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And there's also one called mentalset.

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org.

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Uk, which puts independent mentors

with women working in STEM.

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That's a couple of examples, but

there will be others out there as well.

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So that can definitely be

another route to explore.

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But as I said, there's there

are different routes, there's

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formal and informal routes.

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And it's worth just experimenting

and seeing which route, generates

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the best result for you.

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Once you've you've identified your

potential mentor, then you've got to think

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about getting them to say yes to you if

they're not in some sort of formal scheme,

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starting to build your relationship

with them and getting onto their radar

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is the first point of call, . And

again, LinkedIn can be useful at this.

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If they're active on LinkedIn, you can

start by connecting with them,, and

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then, liking and commenting on their

posts so that they start to see you.

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I think there's some stats, which

is something like only 1 percent

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of LinkedIn users are active.

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So if someone comments on your

post, you certainly know about

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it and you're grateful for it.

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So you can start to build that

relationship, or if they're active

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on Twitter, retweeting their tweets

or commenting on the tweet, can

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be another way of making that

connection using social media.

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But you can also look for how active

they are in other ways as well.

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So if they're an active network

and they're attending networking

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events or conferences where you

know that they're going to be there.

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And if you can attend the same

event and find a way to, introduce

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yourself and have an initial chat

with them, you might not choose to

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mention that mentor idea yet to them.

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You want to warm them up and start

to build that relationship with them.

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But certainly getting to know

them and you can also start to

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review, am I an attractive mentee?

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Would I want to mentor me?

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Do I show through my activity in my sector

or my organization or on LinkedIn that

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I'm committed to my own development,

that I'm committed to my learning, that

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I'm committed to my career progression?

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As a mentor you probably always

want to work with somebody who is a

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motivated individual who wants to use

the time and get the most from it.

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So thinking about how you can show that

you are that person is also valuable.

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And then when you've started to build

that relationship with them, you can

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then make an initial approach to

have a conversation with them, or take

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them out for coffee, to meet them to

chat about whether they would do it,

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be amenable to becoming your mentor.

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And let's face it.

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Most people are going to be incredibly

flattered if you approach them

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and ask them so don't shy away

from making that initial approach.

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Often people can't become mentors

because of the time commitment.

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If you can be clear about the time

commitment that you're looking for

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from them, if it's maybe one hour

a month with you coming to them or

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doing it on Zoom, so it's easy for

them that it's, you're going to make

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it easier for them to say yes to you.

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Thinking about what that time

commitment might look like can be can

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be helpful at getting them to say yes.

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And then once, once they've agreed,

which hopefully they will Most

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mental relationships work effectively

if you've got clear boundaries.

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So you can think about setting

up an informal contract with each

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other about how it's going to work.

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And that can include things like

regularity of meetings for how long.

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It can also include Things like

confidentiality, which is really

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important, and the goals that you

have for the mentor relationship.

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And you could even build in

a sort of break clause to it.

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So to review the relationship,

maybe after three months.

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And then if it's not working,

you can both agree to go your

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separate ways, or you can, extend

it and continue the relationship.

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But being upfront and honest about

it is setting up for success.

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If you don't have clear boundaries,

then things can get muddy and people

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can not know what their role is

or how much is expected of them.

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I hope that's been useful to you about

thinking about what you want from a

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mentor and how then you can find a mentor.

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And once you've got them, how you can

make sure that mentor relationship works.

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And of course, you can think

about becoming a mentor yourself

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as well, because that's also

good for your career development.

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There could be more junior employees

or people in your community or, through

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a voluntary capacity, who you could

mentor and also get the benefit of

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being a mentor, as well as looking

for someone who will mentor you.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

245

tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

249

And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

250

and I will personally thank you.

251

Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

252

Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

253

Be unstoppable.