Thinking of getting yourself a mentor in 2025? Here are 10 opportunities and benefits for you to consider.
by Darren Caveney
I was sat on the train to Leicester earlier this week, to meet a new mentee, and was reflecting that I have been mentoring now for 15 years. I totted up that this has included more than 30 comms pros.
I have really enjoyed my experiences, met some fantastic people, and learned a lot along the way.
So, I thought it might be useful to share a few insights I have picked up, and which may help you if you are considering some mentoring this year, shaped by a 10-point plan to support you through it.
The 10 ‘C’s of mentoring
1. Career planning
This will mean many things, to many people. And every mentee will be in a different situation.
For some, the focus will be about building a career with their current employer. Gaining a promotion, or simply gaining more experience, for example by working on more strategic projects.
For others, the reason they have turned to mentoring in the first place is because there is an underlying feeling of unhappiness. This is a definite trend I have spotted over my 15 years. And there is nothing wrong with that, by the way. If we’re unhappy professionally the onus is generally on us to take some control and do something to effect positive change. Mentoring can help with this.
I know the public sector jobs market very well, though both comms2point0 jobs and comms2point0 Interims. This industry insight can potentially help a mentee with their job planning.
But, wider than that, sitting down to talk through and develop a career plan can be quite transformational for anyone keen to develop. Key questions will include:
- what kind of role are you looking for?
- what sector(s) do you want to work in?
- how much do you want to earn?
- where do you want to be based?
- how far as you willing to travel?
- And a killer question, which target organisations fall within your travel radius?
Answer those questions and you might find that you can narrow down your search to just a handful of organisations. I did this with one head of comms I was mentoring and who indeed went on to secure a role with one of their target organisations within a specific travel time. Of course, this approach can take a while to come to fruition but the public sector comms jobs market is very active most of the time.
I have also mentored people who have moved to the world of consultancy and freelance and that’s been good fun and very interesting.
2. Confessional
Everyone needs a trusted, friendly ear to vent to and sense check in with. Very often you can’t fully do this with people in your own comms team, especially if you lead it. And it’s tricky to also fully share with colleagues in your organisation. Friends and family can of course be helpful but often they don’t really understand what on earth it is we do in a comms role.
That is where a mentor comes in.
You can tell a mentor anything and it will go no further. Your mentor should have empathy and understanding of the job you do, in my view, to be of most help. Broadbrush, generalist mentoring wouldn’t work as well for me. But then again, we’re all different.
Talking through a difficult situation or an upcoming issue which is giving some sleepless nights can benefit from opening up and getting some guidance. Sometimes even just hearing that you’re not losing your mind, can be a help.
But, for sure, bottling issues up and not talking about them can lead to bigger problems further down the track. I’m from a generation where this was the norm and although it probably came to me late, sharing openly and honestly with someone you trust I have found can genuinely help.
3. Concentrate on you
Communicators are naturally giving people. Which is fine. But we very often forget all about ourselves. A good mentor will correct this and force you to think about yourself more often. What is it you think, want and need? This should be teased out and focussed upon.
A mentor can help you to develop a 12 month plan tailored entirely upon you and what you need and want. It’s ok to be selfish here – this is your time, your life and your career, and to be blunt, the chances are nobody else will consider this for you. Take charge and map out the journey plan to help you get to where you want to be.
With my mentees we go through a skills matrix to assess where the strengths are, as well as the gaps where we will focus some attention on. That may result in a day shadowing someone who excels in a priority area for the mentee, for example.
4. Calculate your worth
I would broaden this to any comms person, actually. I think we should all know and understand our worth. I believe you should know your daily and hourly rate (I have a bespoke comms2point0 calculator which works this out) Then, whether a project has been a rip-roaring success, or a downright fail, it can be reported back upwards and to your leadership team with your time and costs included so that there is visibility to what you are being asked to deliver AND the cost to the organisation.
Most leaders take an interest in the financials so it can be a good way to focus some attention on the cost of non-priority work.
5. Capture what you deliver
Once you know your worth in terms of your day rate and hourly rate, it’s a very good idea to really scrutinise the work you deliver. You can work through your to do list with your mentor and agree which of it is genuinely priority work and which is not.
Hopefully, the ratio is here is in the right place and the bulk of your work is assigned to the most important work. However, we know this isn’t always the case. With your mentor you can work through a plan to address this, with a mixture of tactical adjustments and sometimes with a plan for an awkward conversations to challenge and push back on those ‘fluffy’ requests.
6. Clarify your role
I have noticed a trend amongst many mentees where their organisation’s don’t see comms as a strategic business function. As a result, the mentee can be caught between stools about what is asked for, vs what is needed. So, clarifying the role of comms in the organisation can be a requirement for the mentee.
There are many ways to do this, and the approach will be tailored to the organisation and their circumstances, but as a rule this is about engaging the leadership team to seek agreement on what comms will and won’t deliver. It sounds obvious but I have seen this as a gap on multiple occasions.
Agreeing this – and sticking to it – can transform the role of the comms mentee, and as a by-product, their standing and profile within the organisation.
7. Campaign for you
Building upon the point above, another thing I usually do is look at the profile of the mentee, and assess how and where we may need to reinforce it.
You know the dreaded phrase:
comms people are bad at their own comms.
I’m not having it. We should be brilliant at our own comms. And whilst I get that our day job is about promoting other people, products and services and not ourselves, if we’re serious about developing our own careers and profiles this can be an area to really target.
Typically, I would suggest areas such as writing blog posts and speaking at events and on webinars, through to award entries and building personal networks. And how sharp and relevant is your LinkedIn profile?
8. Coping mechanisms
This can be a key requirement of a mentoring relationship. The mentor will almost certainly have experienced spells which challenged their mental health and wellbeing. And that experience can be lent upon to help the mentee work on coping mechanisms and techniques for safeguarding their mental health and wellbeing.
Again, the approach here will be tailored to the individual and the individual circumstances. Some mentees come forward because there is an underlying issue here and it is best addressed openly with your mentor.
9. Coffee chats
Online meetings have been a revelation since Covid hit, and really opened up what is possible for mentoring across distances. But at the same time there is so much to be said for getting out and meeting up in a good coffee shop for a mentoring session. I like a home and away session, logistics allowing, because a face to face natter is still the best way to work with a mentee. Of course, they can be topped up with online meetings and messages as the need arises.
10. Comradeship
Lastly, comradeship. Now this isn’t a reason to get involved in mentoring, and isn’t essential for a successful mentoring experience. But, it is something I have found happens, and benefitted from. You can form quite an important relationship on a professional level, where trust flourishes and joys and sorrows are dealt with together.
You don’t have to become besties. But I have made some really good friendships over the years.
It’s been an absolute joy to see some careers turned around – I have seen good people rise from tricky situations to go on to fly high in the industry. And that’s the very best part of being a mentor.
Good luck if you decide to get a mentor this year. I bet you don’t regret it.
Darren Caveney is creator and owner of comms2point0 and creative communicators ltd and organiser of the UnAwards.
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