Mentoring is a deeply fulfilling second career that allows experienced professionals to guide, advise, and share knowledge with less experienced persons (mentee), with an intent to help the mentee develop new skills, and progress personally & professionally.

One of the first things to do is to evaluate your own ability as a mentor. A good mentor must be an excellent listener, is empathetic, has skills and knowledge relevant to the mentees, has the ability to motivate the mentee, is committed to the relationship and to the development of the mentee, communicates very well, and is extremely patient. If you have ticked off all of the above, you are probably ready to launch yourself as a mentor.

Learn the trade.

Take a course. Mentoring courses help you identify your strengths, teach you methods to find the right mentees, and help you structure a mentoring program that benefits both mentor & mentee alike. Equally importantly, list out your core skills, and look for mentees who are looking for help in areas you excel in.

 Put your credentials out there.

Use every conceivable professional and personal connection (say LinkedIn) to state your desire to mentor. Publish your thoughts, give insights, and participate in webinar and in-person industry and networking events to present your credentials.

Get started.

Take your time to identify your early mentee(s). Remember that trust is everything; taking off slowly yet steadily, and building on success and credibility gives you a better shot at success. Structure your fees wisely; experience and success pays – so play the waiting and learning game.

Scale up.

It takes a fair bit of structured mentoring to see repeated success. And nothing sells better than references; make sure your mentees spread the good word. And when the time is right, create an ecosystem of similarly committed and competent mentors, some of whom you may have created, with varying specialization and knowledge. This pool of “mentor partners” can be a valuable pool for future mentees to dip into.

Now that you have a bird’s eye view into mentoring, what is stopping you? Step forward, and take the leap. It may be your start to an enriching second career.