The greatest way for you to learn is to teach. American author, Robert Heinlein once said, “When one teaches, two learn.”
As your business grows, so will you. Your acumen, ability to read the room, and ability to adapt to whatever situation unfolds.
Entrepreneurship transforms you on a fundamental level unlike anything else. Others gravitate towards your fountain of knowledge. Entrepreneurs possess the uncanny ability to captivate not only their friends and family, but acquaintances and even total strangers (LinkedIn has made that easier).
It can be intimidating, or odd, perhaps a bit scary, but don’t be discouraged by it, get excited! Mentoring is an amazing prospect for both the person you’re mentoring and yourself.
Here’s why…
Emotional Intelligence
When you’re mentoring someone, you’re taking stock in that person. You learn about their habits, their quirks, and get an idea of what makes them tick. Along the way, you begin to understand them better.
One of the main components to emotional intelligence is Empathy. The more people you mentor, the more types of personalities you work with, and working with your mentees can help you recognize the needs and interests of others, as well as how they think.
Working with mentees can not only strengthen your emotional intelligence with the people around you, but it can also help you understand the people you work with more.
Strengthen Lessons Already Learned
Think back to your school days… The best way to study for a big test was re-teaching the information to someone else. Mentoring revolves around this same concept often referred to as the Protégé Effect.
The protégé effect is a psychological phenomenon where teaching somebody helps you better retain and understand information.
The protégé effect can increase your brain’s ability to process the subject matter you are discussing with your protégé. You may not know everything about a subject, but you will be able to impart that important information to someone and strengthen your understanding along the way.
You’ll Become a Better Leader
Being a mentor makes you understand the needs of those you lead. You will discover new questions that long for answers, and you will make connections with concepts you didn’t recognize before.
Mentoring somebody helps you realize what the people you manage need from you. There may be some qualities you can provide your mentees that you unknowingly neglected with your employees.
Broaden Your Network
ABN – Always Be Networking. There is only so much that connecting on LinkedIn can do.
Mentoring people instantly increases your network to all the people in your protégé’s network (and vice versa) while also establishing you as someone their network can trust and seek guidance from. This can help you build your business, find investors, identify strategic opportunities, and so much more.
(Do I really need to explain why networking is valuable?)
Get Mentoring!
When you mentor somebody, you don’t just help them, you also help yourself by being exposed to new ideas, strengthening important concepts, and meeting new, potentially valuable, business partners.
So, don’t wait! Find the people you want to help and get mentoring!
naturalForms – Smart Forms for Smart Business
About naturalForms®
naturalForms is an innovative software company based in Dayton, Ohio, USA and is the leader in natural input technologies providing an end-to-end mobile data capture platform that automates the collection of natural input (such as handwriting, photos, notes, drawings, and signatures) instantly at the point of entry. Information captured with tablets or other mobile devices is immediately converted to digital data and seamlessly integrated to backend systems. Straight-through processing eliminates cycle time delays and human data entry errors, creating an unsurpassed workflow optimization and significant cost savings. naturalForms’ solutions are used around the world, delivering value in multiple industries. To learn more, visit http://www.web.naturalforms.com.