Being a mentor implies more than providing good advice. Mentors help others grow personally and professionally by aiding them in the development of knowledge and skills.
Becoming a mentor as a female entrepreneur comes with a dose of empowerment. When a woman stands out from the crowd and makes her way to the road of success she can create a powerful and inspiring impact.
Women who are passionate about management and businesses can share their expertise to inspire, empower, and encourage other women to be bold, take risks, and believe in themselves.
Here are some tips to help and guide female entrepreneurs in their path toward becoming positive mentors.
Lead By Example
Mentors must be an example worth following and gain people’s trust. Great leaders or mentors can leverage the power of example to reach a larger group of people.
As a female entrepreneur, you need to share your experiences, talk about how you overcame your fears and struggles to reach success, and provide practical suggestions that aid others doing the same. And, most importantly, you must stay true to yourself and others. Otherwise, you’ll be a fraud that can collapse at any time.
Communicate Efficiently
Communication is about delivering your message correctly and efficiently and knowing how to be a good listener.
Communication skills are a great asset in every niche. As a mentor, you must prepare yourself properly because speeches, seminars, or open talks will become a regular routine.
Develop Your Strategic Thinking
Many believe well-developed strategic thinking is the core element of being a great mentor or leader. Strategic thinkers connect the dots efficiently and stay updated with the latest news and trends.
Strategic thinking can help mentors grow and move forward from Point A to a greater and higher Point B in your professional path.
Share Your Mistakes
Failures should not be viewed as mistakes, but rather as learning opportunities.
As Shane McCall, HR manager at EssayOnTime, stated, “Sharing your experiences, and especially your failures, is the best thing you can do as a mentor. People want to know how you managed to overcome your failures and what are the greatest lessons you learned from them.”
Set Goals
You must know where you’re heading or, simply put, you must know what you want to achieve as a mentor. After you’ve settled your destination, you must plan your own roadmap. You can’t reach your destination if you don’t know the road you have to follow.
Throughout your mentorship you’ll achieve goals until you reach your destination. During your journey, you’ll keep adding and achieving unpredicted goals.
Find Your Intrinsic Motivation
It’s natural to wonder and doubt whether you’re on the right path—it doesn’t necessarily mean you should give up.
Look for the true motivation within yourself. Start by asking: “What motivates me the most?” or “What I consider worth fighting for?”
Leverage Technology
Mentors can leverage many apps and tools to improve their business’ success, such as accounting solutions; payment services; and project, task, and time management. Through mentorship, they can share how technology helped them and encourage others to utilize similar tools.
Mentoring Others
Mentorship is all about helping and inspiring others. The keys to becoming a great mentor are to be an example worth following, be natural and honest, and to find the intrinsic motivation that will help you moving forward in your journey.
About the Author
Serena Dorf is a Los Angeles-based content writer.