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Mentorship During a Pandemic: Why It’s More Essential Than Ever

Mentorship is one of the principal keys to success, yet many people struggle to find a mentor or to establish a productive mentor/mentee relationship. At every point of my career, mentors have helped me develop and improve certain vital skills including communication, leadership, and management.

What is Mentorship? 

Mentorship is a relationship between two people in which the more senior person (the mentor) passes along what they have learned to the more junior individual (the mentee). But the mentee isn’t the only one who benefits from a mentor/mentee relationship. The mentor often finds great satisfaction in helping rising professionals become more knowledgeable about a particular industry or skill. After a mentoring session, I always get a boost of confidence and motivation that continues to push me grow as an individual. Mentoring is just good karma all around for everyone involved.

 Why Mentorship Matters 

Mentors can provide valuable insight into roles, opportunities, and guide mentees as they make critical decisions in their professional and personal lives. During the current climate of economic upheaval and social distancing, mentorship is more important than ever, even if networking events and social functions are absent.   I have been using some technology resources to facilitate individual mentorship and connect with groups of people.

For more individualized mentorship activities, I have been using:

  • EDRM Hub – a space recently launched by the EDRM to help people with careers and mentorship. “The Hub” posts job opportunities and information about those who participate in the organization then makes it easy to make connections.
  • ACEDS Mentorship program – the professional certification organization has a structured platform entirely focused on mentorship and enhancing the mentor/mentee relationship.
  • Facebook – I have also created a mentorship section on the highly moderated group for eDiscovery professionals on the Facebook eDiscovery page to help people make connections and obtain individual support to grow their careers.

For more group mentorship activities and get the happy hour feel for networking, I’ve been using:

  • Zoom – the go-to video conferencing application with over 200 million daily users. The background feature is fun and very easy to use.
  • Microsoft Teams – The Microsoft O365 collaboration platform helps businesses and individuals stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic.  I use Teams extensively in my day-to-day workflow and it has become a productivity lifesaver for me beyond the conference feature.
  • Houseparty – a face-to-face social network that allows up to eight individuals to video chat at once within secure “rooms.” Be aware that your contacts on Houseparty can pop in to an open “party”, but the games built into the app are fun.

I highly recommend that you explore these resources to identify mentorship opportunities as we navigate these extremely challenging times. I also encourage you to visit the Facebook eDiscovery page and sign up for mentorship today.

Do you have any other insights concerning mentorship during a pandemic? Tell us about them in the comments and happy mentoring!!