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Mentorships ranked first in LinkedIn's 2023 Workplace Learning Report.
The theme topped diversity, equity and inclusion (No. 2), upskilling and reskilling (No. 3), leading through change (No. 6), digital literacy transformation (No. 7) and hybrid/flex work (No . 9), to name just a few.
Mentoring's top spot doesn't surprise me, considering mentoring's proven impact on career development. This is one of the reasons why Content Marketing Institute launched its year-long mentorship program in 2021. (Applications for the 2024 program are open until March 1st.)
Benefits of mentoring
Many studies on mentoring focus on the benefits for youth, but the benefits don't stop after you graduate.
A Deloitte-funded study detailed the non-monetary benefits of mentoring, including:
- 87% of mentors and mentees say they feel empowered and have developed more confidence as a result of their relationship.
- 82% say their mentoring relationships help foster meaningful connections between mentor and mentee, and between departments and the organization.
- 84% say their relationship provides mutual inspiration.
Earlier this century, Gartner conducted a five-year study of Sun Microsystems' mentorship program. About the findings:
- 25% of employees who participated in the program saw a pay increase, compared to 5% of employees who did not participate.
- Mentees were five times more likely to be promoted than those without a mentor.
But the benefits are not just limited to the mentees. Sun mentors were six times more likely to be promoted than non-mentors.
Mentor perspective
Over the years, Vish Khanna added the mentorship role to his experience, first as a coach for his child's sports team and later in his professional world – building marketing teams in a way that requires mentoring. The 2015 Content Marketer of the Year now works as Head of Marketing at Shelf.
As he explains, Vish hires marketing makers, not marketing managers. “I have to find the right person and nurture their skills and abilities to play this type of (managerial) role, and that requires mentoring,” he says.
He has also been taking part in the Content Marketing Institute program as a mentor for two years. “A good mentor-mentee relationship is largely based on peers. Maybe I have a decade more experience.
“I was surprised at how much these conversations with my mentees really changed their daily workflow and the way I do my work. Based on what I learned from my mentees, I fundamentally changed my marketing approach.”
CMI mentor Deanna Ransom, co-founder and co-CEO of Red Monkey Consulting, agrees. “What I've really enjoyed is the opportunity to both give and receive in the relationship,” she says.
Vish says he contacts his former mentees every month or two and sometimes asks for advice because they know Vish's business challenges very well.
But this strong relationship began with an approach Vish learned from working with many startups and product planning: He immediately asked dozens of questions to identify the mentee's challenge(s).
“If you go through 20 questions in a pipeline, you're going to come across a lot of gaps. It’s just the nature of it (of the matter), because not everyone has tightened everything up,” says Vish. “You get there pretty quickly (identify the challenges) – what’s happening at a tactical and structural level in someone’s marketing engine – and then figure it out.”
But before Vish and his mentees asked questions or shared thoughts, they signed a nondisclosure agreement. He says the document allows both parties to speak honestly and openly about their challenges.
Mentee perspective
Vahag Aydinyan, now Senior Content Marketing Manager at 7shifts, was a mentee in the CMI program in 2022. Things went so well that he and his mentor Megan Gilhooly continued to meet monthly last year.
While Vahag has had a few short-term mentors, the CMI program was his first in a formal program. As a newly minted content marketing manager at the time who needed to turn a one-man team into a four-man team, he was eager to get input from a mentor.
He says two outcomes of the mentoring were helpful:
- I learned a lot from someone who went through the same thing throughout his career. He says he was able to overcome challenges more easily because he had someone to help him.
- He received validation of his ideas and solutions from an experienced professional before sharing them in the workplace.
The mentor pair usually met once a month, but sometimes he would ask to join a phone call to address an important topic at the time. “I bring notes… the more prepared you are for a meeting like this, the more you get out of it,” says Vahag.
On Vahag’s advice for mentees:
- Set clear expectations.
- Make sure you give it enough thought. Make it easy for your mentor to help you.
- Be open to the mentor's advice, even if you may not want to hear it.
How to find a mentor
A study by Olivet Nazarene found that 61% of mentors and mentees work at the same company. However, there are benefits to working with a mentor who doesn't share the same employer.
Divya Bisht, a content strategist, worked with mentor Keneisha Williams in the CMI program before becoming a speaker at Content Marketing World. “It can be difficult to get advice from a manager in the workplace. But with a mentor who worked outside my company, it was easier to get feedback and gain valuable insights,” says Divya. “Keneisha provided a new outside perspective on my projects and helped me see what was going right, why certain elements failed, and what I could improve in the future. She really helped me develop as a strategist.”
You can still find a mentor or mentee if you don't participate in a formal mentorship program like CMI's. The Olivet study found that 25% of mentees were invited by their mentors and 14% asked someone to mentor them.
Treat your mentor search like a lead generation activity – you'll likely reach many, with one or two developing a mentor-like relationship. That's what Vish says he did. He reached out to people who had done something that interested him and told them he wanted to learn more about the thing. Some of these outreach opportunities have turned into long-term relationships.
He shares an example from a previous role organizing author events. Vish's hero was Frank Chin, an author and pioneer of Asian American theater. He asked Frank to attend. The invitation was accepted and Vish spent the three days with him. “The relationship continued for years afterward,” says Vish.
Expand your search for mentors outside of your industry. “One of my biggest mentors who taught me about commercialization in the pharmaceutical industry was a doctor – he worked closely with him and learned about an entire business world,” says Vish.
After the NDA
Although a nondisclosure agreement is a smart first step, it is not the only document that should be created. Both the mentor and mentee should be on the same page about expectations and how the two will work together.
EDUCAUSE offers this helpful guide to mentoring. It describes the four phases of the relationship – preparation, negotiation, enabling growth and closure. It includes a pre-partnership checklist to make sure you're ready, interview questions to identify potential topics, and more. I find the agreement checklist particularly helpful to ensure each person understands the relationship and expectations. Among the questions:
- How much time can be regularly spent on the relationship? Be realistic.
- Write down goals and analyze them to meet the SMART criteria.
- Agree on a discussion format (e.g. formal agendas, topic-based agendas, check-in conversations).
- Be flexible. Expectations and plans will change as your relationship progresses.
- Formulate success criteria. What does success “look” like?
I would like to share your mentoring experiences with CMI readers. Did you have a mentor or mentee? How did you find your partner? What do you like about it? What could have been better? Please tag us on social media.
Updated from a January 2023 article.
Interested in becoming a mentee? Applications for the 2024 mentoring program are open until Friday, March 1st. Apply today.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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