The unexpected benefits of mentoring others

At some point in your career, you may well be advised to seek out a mentor. The idea is that if someone who is further along in their journey guides you, you can move faster in yours. For the most part, this is solid advice. Having a mentor can provide you with invaluable insights, give you tailored support, and get you thinking in ways you wouldn’t otherwise.

However, I’m not going to talk about being a mentee today. Instead, I’d like to inspect the other side of the coin and look at the benefits being a mentor to others can bring. I feel this is an often underrepresented aspect of this relationship and one that deserves more attention.

When learning new skills, most people focus on the theory. They take a new course, follow a tutorial, and then think that’s job done. What far fewer people do is then move on to put that newfound knowledge into practice. Even fewer go on to teach others. By not going through the whole process of learning the theory, practicing, and teaching others, you could be missing out on crucial insights on the road to mastery.

Even if you feel you know a subject, there will always be new ways to approach and conceptualise the topic. By teaching others, you don’t simply need to understand the theory. You need to articulate the core concepts so others will understand and internalise them. Explaining concepts to others is a brilliant way to reinforce and deepen your knowledge.

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