When I first read the Thing 11 about Mentoring, I thought ‘Well, I’ve not really had a mentor’. Looking at it today, I realise mentoring can come in different shapes and sizes: short-term mentors, long- term mentors, professional and personal mentors.
I do get short term mentors in my career whenever I take on a new job and a colleague who had been on the job is required to take me through the job and guide me through the processes. I have also had to mentor junior colleagues during the course of my career and at different times too.
I have had the honour of being mentored informally at the start of my career by a much older colleague who out of her own volition took a personal interest in me (She is now a University Library Director in the same university now.) I must say I enjoyed that because it’s really rewarding to have someone showing interests in your career and personal life and in everything that matters to you although I did not look at it then as being mentored.
However, I have not had the benefit of having a long-term professional mentor and I think this would indeed be beneficial for me at this stage of my career but being a rather shy person I would find it difficult to approach someone and ask to be mentored.
Nevertheless, my journey into chartership would help me have one very soon albeit short-term as I would have to choose a mentor and this would be easier because there is a reason to do it.
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