Why mentoring? The hidden benefits of supporting others

Chris Harris, the Law Society’s Careers and Outreach Officer, highlights the often-overlooked benefits of mentoring.

We all benefit from the support of others. A colleague reviewing a report you’ve been working on for weeks, a passerby holding a door as you rush downstairs, a friend listening as you share your struggles.

Sometimes we require a different level of support to progress in our careers. Someone who can be objective, understanding, and challenging in equal measure.

Each year, we hear from several mentees whose experience with their mentor gave them rich, invaluable learnings to carry forward in their careers. Mentees grow in confidence, expand their networks, and become empowered to tackle and resolve challenges independently. Studies show, across various sectors and contexts, that mentees perform better at work than their mentor-less peers. Yet, we can easily fall into the trap of solely considering the benefits for mentees. What about mentors?

Although mentees gain confidence in the process, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all mentors are inherently confident individuals. A mentor, often an individual more experienced than their mentee, can develop their own interpersonal, communication and leadership skills throughout the process. Every mentee needs something different; there is no right or wrong ‘type’ of person for mentoring.

The job search engine and hiring platform, Indeed, specified that mentoring can provide “increased job satisfaction, feelings of personal accomplishment and development of technical and interpersonal skills”. It can also be a great starting point for those looking to pursue leadership opportunities. The benefits of supporting someone on their journey is already a positive, but the personal development you can gain alongside that can also be transformative.

Similar to the concept of reverse mentoring where early career talent mentor senior leaders, mentoring can allow you to look at things differently, challenge your views, consider experiences you might not have come across and adapt your world view. Yes, that helps you in a professional setting, but developing your people skills can also help you in day-to-day encounters in your personal life.   

Undoubtedly, a mentor has a huge amount to gain and learn from their mentee.

So, would you like to learn?

Our mentoring scheme, which the Law Society has run since 2013, has two well established mentoring options: our career development stream and the early career stream.

The career development stream is open to all within the profession, regardless of your career stage. Whether you are an accredited paralegal or a partner, we encourage all to participate.

For LLB and DPLP students seeking a mentor, we have our reconfigured early career stream (formerly student:trainee). This redesign expands the mentor eligibility, as we now accept mentors from traineeship to up to 5 years post-qualification experience (PQE).

To register for our mentoring scheme, either as a mentee or a mentor, follow the instructions on our website.