What means mentoring to mentors

Author: Martina Knitter, Mentoring Team Switzerland

a box of christmas cookies…

Have you ever been to one of this christmas cookies exchange parties? I love cookies, especially for christmas. But they just taste better in company and if you have a bigger variety of them, the change of tastes, different ingredients, the appearance in different forms is just making them more attractive- well inspiring.

Our online Get together for AICR Certified mentors just felt a little bit like one of these parties. Everybody brought his own results of hard work and it was beautiful to listen and taste of all of them.

Of course just as in cookies there are a lot of similarities, so I collected for you a few answers of the two key questions during that evening:

1. What is mentoring for you?

Mentoring means inspiring and guiding new generations into our beloved industry. Providing a helping hand that I wish I could have had when I was at the start of my career! P – AICR UK

For me mentoring means giving guidance for others who struggle. And getting new impulses myself. M. AICR CH

I have become a mentor because I feel like I want to give something back. In the past years I have met a few special person which became mentors to me. Where I am now personally and professionally was impacted by them. LM- AICR D

Mentoring means to me a process to grow in both directions- for the mentor and the mentee. I enjoyed the training with Kevin and I am trying to invent lots of the ideas and toughts to my daily business. S- AICR AT

I am a Mentor because it brings me joy to support others. I have been so lucky to benefit from great AICR Mentors in the past. Now I want to give something back. J- AICR CH

2. How success looks for you and what is motivating you.

My motivation is to know that there is potential in each and everyone. Just invest some time and interest and it will pay back. S. AICR AT

What keeps me motivated is the fact, that the industry is facing challenging times due to shortage in stuff, the effects of the pandemic and luck of appreciation. But there are such wonderful, passionate, young talents in our industry which need guidance, appreciation.
LM- AICR D

To see how a mentee is getting stronger inside and growing with her/his challenges.
M. AICR CH

To see my mentee achieving her goals and getting a new job offer – having to decide between two companies and helping her to weight down pros and cons of each.
P. AICR UK

You can see below we had mentors from 5 different sections of AICR International on board. And they all had decorated their cookies with colourful sprinkles of success stories, questions, doubts, suggestions and most important great support for each other.

 

It was a really enjoyable evening and we agreed to do this soon again- hopefully with more mentors and mentees on board.

Would you like to join our journey- contact or leave me a comment.