Choosing different types of Mentors

It's important to have Mentors in Professional and Private Life. Following is a list of several different types of mentors. You may want to find at least one in each category :

- Leadership Mentor: If you aspire to move into a leadership position, you need to find someone who can model leadership behaviors. This person can teach you everything from how to delegate to how to communicate a strategy. Certainly CEOs are great mentors in this regard, but many vice presidents are strong leaders and can provide the same lessons.

- Skills Mentor: This is someone who possesses one or more skills that you suspect will be critical for you. I needed to learn to write well; you may need to learn to speak well. It may also involve learning more technical skills based on job function.

- Knowledge Mentor: What you learn from this mentor is more generalized than the specific skills a mentor offers. This person may know a lot about how to obtain resources or may simply be wise about the dos and don'ts of a career. Some of the best mentors are ones who can serve as sounding boards for your ideas and offer suggestions and information to help you achieve your goals.

- Non-Work Related Mentor: This can be anyone from a family member to a famous politician, and the person can be living or dead. This is an individual you can draw inspiration from and whose life and behavior provide a good model for  your own. Unlike work mentors, these individuals may not be available to answer your questions about how to obtain a promotion, but they can offer you valuable lessons about ambition and an ethical way of approaching your goals.

- Primary Mentor: This is someone with whom you interact regularly, and it can be any of the above types except the non-work related mentor. Your Menor maybe your direct boss or someone in the organization with whom you form a particluarly close bond.

- Secondary Mentor: This can be an elder statesman who has great respect in the industry and whom you turn to only occasionally, or it may be a guru with particular expertise in an area in which you're interested.

Take a look at the list of Mentors : Click Here