Mentoring is the Innovation Booster You Need
Along with ushering in the New Year, January marks National Mentoring Month.
Mentorship is a valuable tool for learning, growth, and development. Mentorship creates a trusting environment to receive feedback and can benefit many, from a doctorate student looking for a professor’s guidance to an employee seeking career feedback, and even a new brand looking for advice prior to launch. Mentorship can help people and companies unlock their full potential and can be a catalyst for innovation.
Innovation is critical for organizations to stay competitive in today's rapidly changing environment.
Over 30,000 new products are brought to market every year. However, 80% of these fail. When I was growing up, my mom and her business partner had a long list of innovative, fun, and creative ideas centered around children’s games and toys. They were fortunate to bring one of these ideas to market, but it was discontinued. “I often think about what could have happened if mentorship had been around in the 1980’s and what our true potential could have been if we had a mentor with industry knowledge that we could trust.” Unfortunately for my mother, mentorship in the workplace didn’t become more common until the mid-1990s; by the mid-2000s it still only impacted small fractions of organizations.
Nowadays, attitudes toward mentorship have changed. Given the importance of innovation and the high failure rate of new products, seeking guidance and support from more experienced mentors can help individuals (and even organizations) learn from their mistakes and successes, and benefit from the mentor’s knowledge and expertise.
There are several ways in which mentorship can boost innovation:
Share knowledge and expertise: Mentors can provide valuable perspectives that can help mentees think critically and produce creative solutions.
Act as a sounding board: Mentors can be a valuable source of feedback, providing honest and constructive feedback.
Encouraging risks: Innovation often requires taking risks, which can be very intimidating. With mentor encouragement, mentees may be more confident to act boldly.
Network Resources: Mentors can have a wide network of connections and resources that can help mentees bring their ideas to life.
Mentorship relationships can be formal or informal, and can take on many different forms, ranging from one-on-one interactions to corporate incubator and accelerator programs. We often hear the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child”- well it also takes a village to raise an idea to fruition. Mentorship can help you obtain diverse viewpoints beyond your own, so you can be more creative and innovative.
As we kick off 2023, ask yourself: Is mentorship the innovation booster you or your organization needs?