Your career is an adventure into the unknown. All good adventure stories have a mentor who shows the hero the way ahead. Every Frodo Baggins needs a Gandalf. If your career is a climb up Everest, a mentor is someone who will give you snacks, maps and tips for the slopes ahead.
What actually is a mentor?
A mentor is not a therapist. Nor are they a coach, a sponsor, an advocate or a manager.
Mentoring involves a relationship between two people, usually at different stages in their careers, that focuses the open-ended development of the mentee. This can cover a broad range of objectives.
A mentor’s job is to listen, ask probing questions, and then either help you reach an answer that helps you move forward, or to be able to show you how to solve your problem.
A mentor is someone who has been there, done it — or is well into the process of doing it — and is willing to share their wisdom with someone who wants to learn.
How does mentoring work?
A structured mentoring relationship can take the form of a standing meeting at a fixed interval, perhaps with an organisation as a mediator. But mentorship can take many more forms. It can be someone to call for advice when you’re facing a tough choice, the chat function in a virtual conference, an instructive Twitter thread or a coffee with a complete stranger.
How can you find a mentor?
It always starts with you reaching out and saying “I need help”. Often our pride or timidity can make this difficult. But there is nothing wrong with asking for help. Most of the leaders you admire will have had — and probably continue to have — great mentors themselves.
The next stage is to consider what the right type of mentor is for you. Mentors can be roughly split into two types: informal and formal.
Informal mentors
**What’s an informal mentor? **
A mentoring relationship that takes shape organically — outside any institutional or programmatic structure.
Where to find an informal mentor
Mentors are all around you. Informal mentors are just people who would be willing to form a relationship with you where they learn more about what motivates and blocks you — and to share their wisdom to help you grow.
Once you start considering the people around you as potential mentors, here are some likely places you’ll be able to find the ideal mentor in government.
- Your workplace
- Networks, committees and communities of practice
- Social media
- Events: check out speaker bios, blogs or chat functions
- Formal networking events
- Mentor living libraries: several governments provide tools for connecting with mentors. Here’s one for Canada.
Who should you choose as an informal mentor?
Find someone that you really admire and respect. For example, on social media, seek out people who offer genuinely enlightening and positive insights on something you care about.
Someone with similar lived experiences. Think of what aspects of your career are really interesting to you, and find people who have gone on a similar journey. If you’re a parent, you might seek someone out who also had to balance growing their career with raising a family.
Someone **working in your dream job. **The chances are, they didn’t just land in that job. Pick their brains about how they got there.
Someone who is inspiring. Figure out what gives them the energy, ideas and connection that makes you feel good when you interact with them.
How should you approach a mentor?
There are many ways to approach a potential informal mentor, but some ways are definitely better than others. Here’s a tried-and-tested method for getting a mentor:
- **Research them on social media. **Are your first impressions of them valid? What other kinds of work do they do? What kind of views do they have?
- **Email invitation for a virtual coffee. ** But customise the approach. Be clear why you are getting in touch with them, and what you aim to learn.
- **Don’t ask them to be your mentor straight away. **That’s intimidating. Build a rapport first. Connect with them and see if they’re the right person. Informal mentorship doesn’t need a label: they may not even know that you consider them a mentor!
Here’s some further guidance on finding the right mentor in government.
Formal mentors
Formal mentorship relates to projects, programmes and institutions designed to connect mentors and mentees for structured, targeted learning.
**Are they worthwhile? **
Yes. For example, the National School of Public Administration in Brazil (ENAP) ran a 6-month mentorship pilot to tackle a lack of learning opportunities for senior executives in the public sector during the covid-19 pandemic.
The pilot had such a profound impact on the mentors and mentees that it‘s on track to being rolled out across the government.
What benefits are unique to formal mentorship? Precise matching with mentors, subject expertise from co-ordinating institutions and buy-in from your employer.
How to find a formal mentorship programme
There’s a wealth of targeted mentorship programmes available, both within government and through the private sector. You may be able to fund the latter through your learning and development budget. Be open-minded about what you want to gain from the programme: it could be technical skills, inclusivity-focused advice, or learning how to achieve wellbeing and fulfilment through work.
Can I set up a mentorship programme?
Absolutely. Here’s a guide for creating a successful mentorship programme within your department. Plus, here’s a Q&A discussion on the right tools to set up a mentorship network in the civil service.
Becoming a mentor
Many people benefit from mentorship and feel a desire to pay it forward. But mentorship isn’t motivated by altruism alone. A mentor cultivates a rich understanding of what drives people in different governmental grades. This helps them to become more effective, empathetic leaders. They also build committed networks of people throughout government. Here are some UK government resources on becoming a mentor.
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