This article is part of a package of events and resources forming the Young Professionals careers week running 14-18 February 2022, kindly sponsored by PeopleSource. You can see all that is planned for the week here.
Organisations and individuals alike are increasingly recognising the value that comes from engaging with a mentor. According to Wikipedia ‘a mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person’. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and professional growth of a mentee. In recent years there has been a growing recognition of mentoring and the positive impact it can have both from a personal and professional development perspective, including how engaging with a mentor or indeed being a mentor can help to enhance your career success. Many organisations have developed their own mentor programmes to support the development of their talent, and in a market where talent attraction and retention are a major focus for employers, this approach makes sense and as you will see, has proven successful and had tangible benefits.
The benefits of mentoring
The benefits of mentoring are extensive both for the mentor and mentee. A snapshot of those benefits include:
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Access to an independent sounding-board and feedback who understands you or your situation
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Improved confidence and clarity in relation to identifying goals and how to achieve them
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Feeling supported and more motivated to achieve goals
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The opportunity to gain new perspectives, ideas and insights
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The platform to develop relationship management skills and build on your network
Benefits for the mentor
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Potential to develop your listening skills and encourage you to provide constructive feedback
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The opportunity to give back to your organisation and profession and to develop talent
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Provides a sense of fulfilment and purpose and can be motivational
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Obtain new perspectives and insights from the mentee
Developments in mentoring
Group mentoring
Group mentoring is where mentors and mentees meet in a group, rather than in pairs. It has become more widely used in recent years as it can be an effective way in which to scale the benefits of mentoring. Not only that, the group dynamic can help to accelerate the sharing of insights, guidance, advice and ultimately the learning obtained. Group mentoring can provide enhanced exposure to various levels of expertise and knowledge as each mentee brings and shares their own skills and lived experiences with the group. Another important benefit of group mentoring is the potential to widen and deepen your professional network. The move to the virtual world in recent years has certainly accelerated the growth in group mentor programmes, many of which are being run by international organisations, representative bodies, networking groups and employers.
Reverse mentoring
In a rapidly changing workplace reverse mentoring has also proven to be beneficial. The concept behind reverse mentoring is that younger members of the workforce act as mentors to their more senior colleagues and provide insights into such areas as technology, the future of work, engaging with and being relevant to younger generations. This approach has proven to be beneficial to organisations as they seek to be relevant to and connect with the younger generations. It can also assist in terms of developing strategies and initiatives to recruit and retaining younger talent. As with all mentoring, reverse mentoring can be beneficial for both the mentor and mentee. In this instance it provides the mentee with valuable insights from a younger generation and the mentor also benefits as the experience can boost their confidence and help them to feel they are influencing key decisions both for the mentee personally and for the organisation. Reverse mentoring can also prove beneficial when it comes to raising awareness and the understanding relating to diversity and inclusion topics and other contemporary issues. For example, it can help to improve senior leadership’s understanding of minority issues, including LGBTQ+ and ethnic minorities.
Positive feedback from the Institute mentor programme
The Institute offers a Career Mentor Programme to all members, which provides access to over 150 experienced Chartered Accountants with a diverse range of experience across a wide cross section of industry sectors both in Ireland and overseas.
From our interactions with members who have availed of the Institute Career Mentor Programme, we have seen first-hand the benefits of mentoring. The feedback from mentees consistently speaks to such benefits as having the opportunity to gain an independent perspective, clarity in relation to career goals and the support, confidence and motivation to maximise their potential. One member explained that ‘it helped me to get clarity in relation to my career goals and what I need to do to achieve these goals’.
Institute Career Mentor Programme
The Institute operates a Career Mentor Programme with a database of over 150 mentors in Ireland and overseas. The mentors have vast experience across a wide cross section of industries, sectors, disciplines and locations. They have agreed to make themselves available to other Chartered Accountants to provide guidance and support as they develop their career.
To avail of a mentor or to volunteer as a mentor
The Career Mentor Programme is available to all members as part of a wider range of careers supports. Likewise, if you would like to volunteer as a mentor, contact us via email to
our careers team.
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