Tomorrow's Business Leader - Spring 2020 - 16

Here's how to get started.
Tailor your training

Coaching is key

A mentoring relationship can help you achieve ambitious
goals by providing opportunities to:
* Observe and interact with another more experienced
professional

Focus will make your conversations more personally
meaningful and professionally productive. Think about
what you want to work on with your mentor:

* Receive honest feedback and direct encouragement

* Are there speciﬁc goals you think your mentor can
help you with?

* Acquire and enhance knowledge, skills, and
perspectives

* What challenges are youhoping your mentor can
help you overcome?

* Ask questions

* How can your mentor best provide encouragement,
feedback, knowledge, perspective, networking
opportunities or visibility to leadership?

* Gain access to practical resources and tools

The starting line

When you look for a mentor, start by seeking out
respected colleagues within your own field. A mentor
can be a senior professional, but often someone closer to
your own age and experience level will relate best to your
current situation. Also consider what you want help with
- job skills, people skills or work/life balance issues? You
can search for mentor via a formal program such as the
one KPMG provides, or simply ask someone whom you
respect and admire if he or she would consider becoming
your mentor. A mentor's commitment to you can vary
over time and as your mentoring relationship develops.
So you might approach your potential mentor with a
flexible proposal that is considerate of his or her time
and responsibilities.
After you find a mentor and agree to begin, establish
some parameters and a working schedule. Find out
where/when/how often your mentor is available to
talk or meet. During your first conversation, share your
background and goals. Discuss your strengths and areas
for improvement. Explain what you want to accomplish
as soon as possible and what you want to develop for the
long term. Agree to action items and next steps. Finally,
decide how you'll measure progress.

Get into the flow

Your meetings can revolve around work or personal life
(especially work/life balance topics). Questions that could
spark a lively discussion include:
* What are your long-term goals?
* What path did you take to get to this career stage?
* What do you wish you had known or done ﬁve
years ago?
* What are the challenges you face in your typical day/
week/month?
* How do you resolve conﬂicts at work?
* How have you balanced work with the rest of your life?
* What should I be doing differently?
* What additional education or training do I need?
* How should I prioritize my career goals?
* How do I measure my success?

Everyone wins

The value of mentoring is well recognized by companies
that practice comprehensive talent development. At
KPMG, approximately 12,000 employees are involved
in mentoring or being mentored. This commitment by
mentors to give help, and willingness among mentees
to take help, enables employees at all levels to benefit
from the combination of inspiration and example that can
create career champions. 1

To learn more about culture at KPMG, visit us at www.kpmgcampus.com

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member ﬁrms afﬁliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

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Tomorrow's Business Leader - Spring 2020

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