The Power of Mentors: A Guide to Finding and Learning from Your Ideal Mentor

Getting mentors is difficult because it’s just like dating: You have to invest a lot of time in a lot of people to find the ones who will really change your life.

So here's my advice on choosing a coach: Interview a few, because each coach has a different approach, and not all will be right for you. To get a sense of the coach, ask, “What are you best at doing with your clients?” If you like the answer, do a short trial session. If you ask someone what he or she is best at and they won't give you an answer, it's because they're not good at anything, so hang u

Each of us needs mentors to guide us through our careers at different points in time. Sometimes we need help navigating office politics, sometimes we need advice on making a life change. At each point, knowing how to ask for help is essential, and the best way to learn how to ask for help is to give help.
If you mentor someone, you help yourself as well. You’ll find out what a mentoring relationship is like from the other side. For example, you’ll learn what feels useful to the mentor and what’s annoying. You’ll also discover why it’s important to ask good questions, because as a mentor you’re helpless if the person you’re trying to help doesn’t know what he wants.

The easiest way to create allies is to build a reputation as an overachiever

the search requires patience, a clear focus and the self-confidence to be a nudge

There are three pieces to the mentor problem. The first is making yourself believe that your career will never take off if you don’t have good mentors.
The next thing is you need to be able to rope in a mentor. Or three, really. Most people need three good mentors at any given time.
The next problem is how do you ask the right questions of a mentor so you keep the mentor engaged and feeling useful

1. Surround yourself with people who make you curious.

3. Mentors make a real difference.
What will change your life? Mentoring. People who have a mentor are more successful than people who don’t, across the board. For example, people with two mentors are 50 percent more likely to reach their next career goal than people who don’t have mentors.

In fact, I think one of my biggest strengths is to get coaching from a wide range of people.

Remember that good advice is harder to find than money.