Mentors

Mentors have several uses. They give you objective advice regarding how to develop your professional skills or career path. They give you the inside scoop on how to deal with your company culture, co-workers or specific professional situations you confront. They are seasoned scouts, guiding you and lighting your path through the wilderness of the corporate world.

It can take patience and a little extra time to get to know someone who is older or in a different stage in life than you. Think about your college experience. The people who got to know professors in order to get plum research projects and glowing recommendations for graduate schools were always the "geeks" who went to office hours and raised their hands in class. A professor would never just suddenly knock on your dorm room door and tell you she wanted to take you under her wing. Well, getting a mentor in the work world is going to require the same deliberate effort on your part.

Identifying potential mentors

Mentors can be found inside or outside your company. Look around your department, your company and the professional business organizations to which you belong. Identify people you really admire with whom you cross paths. Don't limit yourself to obvious choices (e.g., the most popular/powerful executive, the person who had your job before you, the person of the same race or gender as you). Any impressive, intelligent and insightful person you meet can evolve into a future mentor.

Mentors within the company can help champion or cultivate you. In your company, mentors know all the players, politics, and pitfalls. Ideally, they are well-respected and secure in their positions. They may be a few rungs up the corporate ladder and can help you understand different managers' personalities and preferred working styles, office politics and the lessons they have learned.

Mentors outside of work provide objectivity. Choose mentors outside of your office who know your personality and have wisdom from a wide range of experiences. Develop relationships with at least one or two people who have no impact on your career to whom you can openly vent, turn to for perspective and ask for candid feedback. You will appreciate their distance when a work issue is too controversial to discuss with a fellow colleague, even in confidence.

In many cases, you may not even need a personal relationship with these people in order to learn from them. Observe their traits from a distance, and emulate them when you get in a position of power. For example, one director at Oracle recalls that he admired a manager who recognized hard work by comping subordinates on expensive dinners and hotel rooms. This director is now implementing this practice, which breeds loyalty.

Approaching potential mentors

Be patient and build connections through regular interactions, evolving conversations in the office, over lunch or outside of the office. Don't wait for a potential mentor to invite you to lunch or coffee -- you make the offer. Tell them you would love to hear about their background (people love to talk about themselves). Be direct in seeking their counsel in dealing with your own professional situations. Try to get on projects with them so you can demonstrate your personality and performance. If you do a good job with them, hopefully they will be impressed (and even see themselves in you). Bond over non-professional common interests. An African-American woman discovered a shared love of cooking with a senior white male executive, who often sought her out to exchange recipes.

You can try approaching speakers at seminars or classes; they may be receptive because they like working with younger, ambitious people who remind them of their younger selves and who are receptive to their wisdom.

Establish a broad group of mentors

Cultivate different mentors for different areas of your professional life. You should not expect one person to provide all of the counsel and guidance you need to get ahead. Pick and choose different people you admire for different reasons and use them as a resource in areas where they shine. Quality matters too -- one or two superstar mentors may do you more good in the end than a dozen slackers. Company and independent organizations for women and minorities are a great way to expand your network of mentors.

Getting the most from a mentor

Once you have mentors, be open to their advice. Do not be defensive -- they have nothing to gain in giving you this advice. Mentors will only value and continue your relationship if you're communicative and sincerely value their counsel. Make sure you report back to them on your successes and setbacks.