Mentorship entails giving guidance or counsel to an inexperienced individual in a particular field where one has much exposure and experience. It is not the “boss-employee” kind of relationship, but more of a kind where there is teaching and learning between two individuals. The objective of a mentor is to help you excel in your career and become the best version of yourself. This may involve aiding you to achieve your goals, introducing you to new ways of thinking, challenging your limiting assumptions, teaching you life lessons, and much more.

In mentorship, we choose those who are in the same field as us to mentor us, and in so doing, we are less likely to commit the same mistakes, as we are steered on the right path by these mentors till we can reach new heights they could not attain.

Mentorship does not have to be a vis-à-vis thing, where the individual has to see his/her mentor before any information or guidance can be shared. By simply reading a book or books or communicating virtually, a mentee can tap into a rich source of knowledge and guidance which may seem to be unlimited when compared to having to rely on a single individual for advice. This ‘distance or virtual’ type of mentoring helps to curb some common mentee problems associated with mentoring when it comes to accessibility, reach, and financing because it opens the mentee’s worldview up to the possibility of bridging this gap.

This is not to lessen the relevance of having a ‘traditional one-on-one mentoring’ though, after all, with the use of books, there is always room for misinterpretation. Also, the exact information may not be relayed to the reader. In traditional one-on-one mentoring, a mentee and mentor are matched, either through a program or on their own. Mentee-mentor partners participate in a mentoring relationship with structure and timeframe of their making or as established by a formal mentoring program. This clears the presence of misinterpretation and misunderstanding.

‘Group mentoring’, a mentoring type where a single mentor is matched with a cohort of mentees and initial program structure is provided while allowing the mentor to direct the progress, pace, and activities of the mentees is another efficient way of mentoring. In areas of high specialty where there may be a few experienced and highly exposed mentors, group mentoring acts as a way to ensure that the numerical discord or mentor-mentee ratio is bridged.

It is not worthy though, that mentors don’t necessarily have to be alive to be able to guide the track of their mentees. As seen by less experienced scientists like James Clerk Maxwell, who drew inspiration from the findings and works of their dead mentors (Michael Faraday) to develop their theories, this is also a possibility. Although in some instances their theories may contradict each other as seen in the case of Newton and Einstein on the theory of relativity, it is seen that one was the foundation of the other.

Christians have their mentor in Christ who is seen to be the only path to their ultimate goal which is making it to heaven. Similarly, other people in various sects of life have their mentors who inspire and guide them onto the right track. Ideally, every individual should have a mentor who counsels, guides, and inspires them to develop personally and professionally.

The bottom line is mentorship is one of the best shortcuts for people to achieve their set goals because through mentorship, people get exposed to the nooks and crannies of their field, and they don’t have to keep on making mistakes and hitting dead ends before eventually making it onto the right path. As such, whoever you are, wherever you are, get yourself a mentor in one way or another and get that head start you’ll need in life.