7129_74-79_160608 06/06/2008 15:10 Page 79
MOVING ON UP
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Finding a mentor can be
one of the smartest career
moves an upwardly mobile
professional can make.
Maeve McGovern reports
w
hen looking back on their careers, most very successful people
will acknowledge the wisdom, influence and guidance of certain
people along the way who helped steer the course of their pro-
gression. While top leaders will more than likely reach their
goals anyway, they do tend to recognise early on the value of
listening to the voice of experience in order to speed up their
own learning curve.
While many larger institutions have formal mentoring and
buddy programmes in place, brand engagement strategist
Krishna De says informal mentoring — where individuals
arrange the process themselves — is on the increase in Irish
organisations, although it is still in the early stages.
She believes having a good mentor can be a very valuable
tool for ambitious self-starters trying to climb the corporate lad-
der. “Looking at some of the most successful players in busi-
ness, they will invariably mention key people who influenced
their success and provided guidance,” she says. “In today’s
fast-paced business world where we need to be the CEO of our
own career, people are starting to consider where they can
access personal support. Mentoring is one solution that can
complement formal training and development.”
Occupational psychologist and founder of People in Mind,
John Loughran points out that informal mentoring exists in
every organisation where people can be approached to discuss
anything from very simple issues to more complex problems.
“Most people, including managers and executives, have some-
one they would go to, a trusted confidant they could run things
past,” he explains.
Mentors can be particularly useful for providing an independ-
ent point of view; they can help people to focus, view their pro-
fessional situation from a distance and identify strategies and
opportunities for growth. They can also often offer objective
feedback that the person is not receiving inside their own
May/June ’08 Marketing Age 75
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