By Ashley McCauley

A mentor is someone who you can depend on for unbiased advice and guidance. A mentor brings clarity to your biggest life decisions. My first boss, Ron Shoup, has been my lifelong mentor. He is someone I trust and I admire his ability to make me think differently about situations.

I have found a mentor is critical to my future success and professional development, especially while navigating complicated career decisions that ultimately impact my personal life. You may be only thinking about tomorrow, but a great mentor will help you plan to reach your long term goals.

Growth
I have never made a career decision without asking for my mentor’s advice. His guidance helped set me on my career path. One night, my mentor was driving past the bank where I worked at 10 p.m. He took that opportunity to remind me of one of the most important life lessons: “Work will always be there tomorrow, but your loved ones will not. You should go home.”

As a young professional with career and sales goals, it’s easy to get consumed by numbers on spreadsheets and market share reports. I’m competitive by nature and I thought I enjoyed looking at the numbers daily (sometimes hourly).

Ron knew I needed something different. I’ll forever be grateful for his advice on a career change from banking to insurance. For me, it was a move that almost instantly gave me a new family! #TeamRossbacher is a real family and I’ve never been happier to go to work on Monday. Without Ron’s encouragement and boost of confidence, I may have never stepped out of my comfort zone and found a career that changed my life.

Expectations and Roles
Don’t force a mentoring relationship. I worked for a company that teamed you up as a mentor to another employee who may have had less experience. It didn’t work because a mentor and mentee relationship has to be built on mutual trust and respect. A mentor should be someone who has inspired you by their work ethic, drive, and dedication to employees. A great mentor will feel invested in the future success of their mentee. When looking for a mentor first ask—who inspires you to be better? It’s important to pick someone who not only is invested in your career, but your entire future which includes your personal life.

Becoming a Mentor
Experience is a huge factor in what makes a mentor invaluable. They may have faced the same choice as you at one time or another. You can benefit from that or learn from their mistakes. I hope to one day have the years of experience behind me that will help someone make some of the biggest changes in their lives, too.
Thanks Ashley, for the tips!

This article was published in the Future Leaders & Entrepreneurs Exchange’s (FLEX) July 2020 edition of the FLEX Your Ideas (FYI) Newsletter.