Alumni story / How mentoring will help you to improve your performance

We live in an age where there is a never-ending stream of advice, opinions and expertise at our fingertips. We can find expert videos, blogs, articles and white papers all at the click of a mouse and offline there are books, newspapers and magazines. In truth trying to cut through the sheer volume of advice and information can be exhausting and confusing!

So where can we turn for experienced advice that we can trust to help us achieve stronger performance? In organisations the answer is increasingly, mentors.

Mentoring makes a difference

According to a statistic from Forbes employees who have mentors are five times more likely to be promoted than those who do not, while mentors themselves get promoted six times more often than those who are not mentors.

According to global employment consultancy Robert Walters, 83% of professionals would like to participate in a mentoring programme in their organisation but only 29% of them actually have that opportunity.

Mentors are important in facilitating career mobility and professional fulfillment. They can provide a unique perspective and advice, and can make the difference between a promising candidate and a successful one. Those fortunate enough to have benefitted from good mentors know this instinctively to be true.

Mentoring can make an impact, and thus positively influence career advancement by:

• Fostering skills development
• Championing mentees across the NHS
• Increasing the mentee's confidence levels and aspiration to higher levels of success.
• Providing a role model
• Ensuring resources are used wisely, especially time
• Inspiring and supporting making sure full potential is reached.

Mentoring plays a particularly important role in advancement of young professionals. They may be reluctant to ask for assistance and thus may not develop the skills and tools necessary for advancement.

In this rapidly changing world it is important to be self-aware and plan for your career. Although plans can change and flexibility is a key advantage in the current job market, knowing your strengths and areas where you need improvement and the general direction you would like to take are key elements to success. This is where a mentor can help.

So, what are you waiting for? HFMA’s pool of mentors are available to individual HFMA members completely free of charge. Become a member and fill in our online application form to find your HFMA mentor.