seeking mentorship? 5 ways to find it!

there are a lot of ways to glean the knowledge you’re seeking from others...in fact, there’s 5 styles of mentorship (not just 1):

1️⃣ co: pair up with someone whose skillset is that which you’re looking to learn, and in exchange, they’re looking to learn one of yours.

2️⃣ reverse: this one’s great if you’re earlier in your career and not sure what value you have to add. you can mentor someone who is more seasoned and is looking to learn from your perspective (fortune 500 company executives do this, so don’t count it out!)

3️⃣ from afar: the person mentoring you doesn’t need to know you exist. you can digest their podcast, white paper, instagram posts, ted talk, book, or whatever other materials they put out so you can learn from their wisdom.

4️⃣ moments: don’t squander those passing moments in a rideshare, at a conference, or at a virtual event with a speaker from whom you want to learn. do your homework, ask a great question, and let that be a mentoring moment.

5️⃣ traditional: this one always conjures up images of a mahogany desk and a large leather-bound chair. typically, this is when someone further along in their career wants to pour in and invest heavily in someone earlier on, typically because they see a part of themselves and that person. this is by far the heaviest lift, and the most unequally weighted, so rely on #1-4 when this one is not on the table.

depending on the complexity of your need, the season you’re in, the time you have to allocate to this, it’s great to move in and out of these during different seasons of growth.

which will you try first to get the support and guidance you need?