Mentoring Pays Off: How Guiding Others Can Boost Your Own Career

No matter where you are in your career, chances are a mentor helped shape your journey. But what’s often overlooked is how much mentors also gain.

In healthcare and life sciences, where innovation depends on collaboration, mentoring can hone leadership skills, introduce fresh perspectives, expand professional networks.

While offering your time and expertise as a mentor may feel like an act of generosity, the experience also can enrich your career and foster continuous growth.

Mentoring Brings Fresh Ideas, Unfiltered Perspectives

Mentees bring diverse perspectives to their mentors and organizations. The interactions exposes mentors to fresh ideas, alternative approaches and emerging industry trends they might not otherwise encounter.

"I think there's equivalent, if not more, value to the organization than to the mentee. You're bringing talent into your pipeline at an early stage in their career, when they are eager to learn and contribute," said Viq Pervaaz, Senior Vice President, Life Sciences & Healthcare at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. “Often when we are working in an insulated environment, mentees bring in fresh ideas we may not have considered."

Mentees also can help open up a mentor’s perspective that can make them a better manager.

“Having a mentee helps provide a more candid perspective about how your more junior workforce is thinking about the current landscape – what do they care about, what's important, what they're struggling with," noted Paresh Kumar, PharmD, JD, a Vice President at Ally Bridge Group. “The information flows both ways."

That perspective may be unfiltered, which can be of even greater value to mentors.

"With a mentee, there are no strings attached, in terms of being embedded in the politics of an organization," added Pervaaz. "There's almost a pureness to the delivery of what they're going to provide to the organization. If you're able to see that as a mentor, you'll be able to view it from that lens and see the incredible power that's being granted to you in your mentee."

Mentoring Refines Leadership Skills

Mentoring also can help sharpen communication and coaching skills while enhancing strategic thinking. These benefits can strengthen a mentor’s leadership in their organization or field.

Mentees' perspectives can also make mentors better managers of the people they supervise.

"I've learned from my mentees that everybody is struggling in some ways and struggling with similar things in other ways. Each of their experiences are very different depending on who they're interacting with, what type of environment they're in, which phase of life they're in," said Kumar. "I may not be looking for anything in return, but I think it helps broaden my perspective as a manager."

Mentoring Pays It Forward

Being a mentor is a way to give back to those who helped us on our career journeys. Helping someone grow and succeed is a deeply rewarding experience that can bring great personal satisfaction and fulfillment.

"It's incredibly rewarding to build a relationship with someone who is more junior and be able to help them grow. You may see in them potential that maybe they don't see in themselves. You can help them not just navigate challenges or work out decisions, but develop skills within themselves so they build a strong internal foundation to fall back on," said Arabella Pollack, PhD, Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Hunter College and Director of the Certificate in Business Studies program.

"I get to see their confidence and their abilities grow. A lot of it is helping them believe in themselves and holding them accountable," she continued. "As a result, they can go on to achieve incredible things which I could see that they were capable of, but they didn't see in themselves at the beginning. I hope that the people I mentor will feel appreciative and, down the line, be willing to pay it forward to younger people in return."

Mentorship is also a way for professionals from underrepresented groups to increase representation.

"As a mentor, there are obviously good aspects with regard to paying it forward, particularly if you come from an area where you're not particularly well represented," explained Andrew Lam, PharmD, Managing Director, Head of Biotech Private Equity at Ally Bridge Group. "As PharmD investors, we're not very widely represented as a group. Being a mentor enables us to pay it forward and try to increase representation."

Strengthening Your Professional Network

Mentors often build valuable relationships with mentees, leading to long-term collaborations and career opportunities. And of course mentees are a potential source of future talent.

"Sometimes you'll learn things from junior folks that you won't get from other executives or your peers at different companies. They have their own networks, and it's often helpful to see how they're viewing the world," said Kumar.

Concluded Pervaaz, "As a mentor, the fulfillment you get of imparting experiences and knowledge and helping someone cultivate how they view whatever organization you work in or whatever discipline you work in is incredibly rewarding."