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How Do You Find Mentors? Where To Start
Joel Ospa

Prospering in today's corporations requires a new way of thinking and new skills. Key to corporate success is identifying mentors who can guide you in your rise to the top. You want wise people who care about your success, who will prevent you from making mistakes and, who will teach you the "ropes."

If you ask successful people about their careers, they will invariably talk about the people who helped and mentored them along the way. Today mentoring is much more often viewed as necessary for advancement, and it has become institutionalized in many corporations. Yet it has been happening informally for hundreds of years.

How Does a Mentor Help?

Mentors have knowledge…both professional and organizational that can help you. Mentors are aware of the subtleties, the political nuances as well as the history and culture of an organization. Mentors and bosses are not the same; bosses may give advice, but mentors are never in your direct chain of command. Since mentors do not manage or supervise you, you can ask the "dumb questions" without jeopardy.

Plus you can obtain insights about the people and culture of the organization. A mentor is someone with whom you can talk that understands the corporation, its people, your work, and has access to inside information. Importantly, there is a relationship, trust and interest in your success.

How Do You Find a Mentor...Where Do You Start?

How do you find a mentor-or the best mentor for you? First, it needs to be stressed that you need to think beyond "a mentor." Most people have worked with several mentors over a career. No one is good at all things-plus you'll need to change advisors and mentors as your (and their) jobs and interest change. In short, you're both "allowed" and need to have more than one mentor. Plus remember to stay in touch with people who were helpful to you, even as you reach out to new people, new mentors.

Working with a mentor means having an effective personal relationship with someone. That means there has to be some commonality of interest and some mutually positive feelings. It is hard to create relationships. But you can identify opportunities to initiate, develop and maintain relationships that have mentoring qualities. Like every relationship, each needs to be worked at to be successful.

So-where do you start?

If you think about it, you already know hundreds of people in your company or corporation. So the first step is to list all of the people in your company that "know you"… that is, would recognize who you are when you called them up. At this stage, don't edit the list; just write down all of the names.

When you've completed the list, "score" each name from 1 (low) to 5 (high) on each of the following criteria:

Rapport…. The extent to which you felt comfortable with the person, the "chemistry" was good and you felt it was mutual
Expertise… The extent to which you believe they have knowledge, information, experience that is of interest to you, and you'd like to learn about
Success… The extent to which the person is viewed by the organization as successful… This is an important characteristic because it suggests that this person understands the culture and has successfully navigated their way through the organization.

After you've scored all of your "acquaintances," rank order them from high to low. Now you're ready to make contact. Start calling them up and initiating the relationship. You might start by saying something like….

"Hi. The last time we met, you talked about (?). I was really interested in that and was wondering if you have some time (for coffee, lunch, a meeting) so I could learn more about it?"

Very few people can resist an opportunity to talk about themselves and something of interest to them. Also, if you were right, and the chemistry was good, this first meeting should be easy. Don't let too much time pass before following up.

After the initial meetings, you have to work at building the relationship like any other. It takes time and savvy; but it's worth the effort.