Mentor Vs Manager

photo by Maria Kostyleva (IG:masha_and_film)

Some people believe that they need support in their career only if their manager is bad. 

Well, even with a great manager, you should consider finding a mentor. 

Yes, your manager is responsible for supporting your growth. But the way they do that is very different from what a mentor offers.

Managers

• Focus on your growth within your current company and role.

• Spend more time on day-to-day execution and solving immediate problems.

• Are partly measured on how you develop, what can prevent them from being objective in their assessment

• Are involved in your performance reviews (which can be both helpful and tricky).

• Sometimes influenced by competing priorities, because they have to balance different interests.

  
  

Mentors

• Focus on your overall growth, skill-building, and big career decisions.

• Care less about the daily tasks and more about the bigger picture.

• Don’t have KPIs tied to your growth, you own the results.

• Are completely outside your performance review process and thus is a neutral space.

• Have no conflicting interests, your growth is their only agenda.

  
  

Both are valuable, but they play different roles in your development.

The magic happens when you have both: a great manager to help you thrive where you are right now, and a great mentor to help you navigate where you want to go next.

Don’t leave your growth to chance, invest in it intentionally. Chat with my 𝐀𝐈 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 to learn more about my mentoring programs. And if this soulless machine doesn’t quite cover what you need, no worries. You can ask it for the link to book a trial mentoring session with me directly ;)