I am currently acting as a mentor to a former colleague who is undertaking the CPA program.
This involves assisting my mentee through the CPA Program and the experience requirement by supporting their professional development, reviewing and discussing their achievements and assisting them to select relevant examples to demonstrate in order to achieve competence in a skill.
I am also extremely fortunate to have a wonderful mentor myself, who has been incredibly supportive to me over the past few years, and more recently provided invaluable guidance and advice throughout the set-up of my business.
Various benefits of becoming a mentor and a mentee can easily be found online, and I would certainly agree with the following examples:
Benefits of becoming a mentor:
- Opportunity to reflect on own practice
- Enhances job satisfaction
- Develops professional relationships
- Enhances peer recognition
- It uses your experience, making it available to a new person
- It widens your understanding of the organisation and the way it works
- It enables you to practice interpersonal skills
- It provides personal satisfaction through supporting the development of others
Benefits of becoming a mentee:
- Provides impartial advice and encouragement
- Develops a supportive relationship
- Assists with problem solving
- Improves self-confidence
- Offers professional development
- Encourages reflection on practice
Through my own personal experience, I have found that my relationships with both my mentor and mentee have helped me to reflect on my own practices and consider areas where I can improve my own behaviours and develop my own skills.
