4 Types of Mentors (+ How to Know Which One You Need)

coaching Sep 30, 2021

Are you feeling stuck in your career? Are you unsure how to get that promotion you know you deserve? Are you concerned that you're being overlooked for opportunities that you would crush, if just given the chance?

Maybe you’re just confused about the next best steps to take in your professional or personal life. If you’re nodding your head ‘yes’ to any of these scenarios, then you my friend, need a mentor.

We ALL need mentors. We all need someone who will,

make space for us
hold us accountable
ask us the hard questions
give us a blueprint
help us get out of our own way

In fact, did you know that having a mentor increases the chances that you'll rise to leadership ranks and make more than 130%, no matter the field or profession?

Clearly, the question isn't whether you need a mentor. The question is which type of mentor you need at this stage of your life.

At The Empowermenteur LLC, we offer three core offers to work with me.

S.T.R.U.T. Into Coaching Academy to mentor new and aspiring coaches to build their own coaching company.
Your Career Owned Collective, a group coaching community that provides career / business coaching and peer mentorship. We talk about everything: public speaking, natural hair in the workplace, managing up, overcoming imposter syndrome, making the perfect pivot or career transition—no subject is off limits in the Collective.
6-session 1:1 coaching with me to confidently work through any professional or personal challenges you’re facing.

The collective affirmation at The Empowermenteur LLC is that we are each 100% responsible for our own career development, planning and success.

An essential key to owning your career is knowing how to choose the right type of mentor based on where you’re at right now in your career or business journey.

We all know how valuable having a mentor can be for our success. Studies show that having a mentor leads to persistence and tenacity in reaching our career or business goals.

Mentorship leads to increased productivity and higher career / business satisfaction. It also leads to enhanced career and business:

Identity
Autonomy
Increased income
Sense of belonging

That's what mentorship can do for you. And belonging is the gateway to unleashing human potential. If you want to own your career and lifestyle, you need to know which mentor archetype you need.

Here are the 4 Mentorship Archetypes:

The Traditional Mentor
The Coach
The Sponsor
The Connector

The traditional definition of mentorship is, “a relationship that is self-directed, mutually beneficial, usually long-term between two individuals for one of their long-term career that moves to help you advance in your career over the long-term.” Now, let’s dive deeper into the characteristics of each mentorship archetype.

The Traditional Mentor

In most traditional mentor-mentee relationships, the mentor does most of the talking and offers advice based on their experiences. They provide a blueprint, and they guide the mentee through an experience that they've already been through. They enable you to see yourself more clearly, or on the same path they took.

Mentors act as mirrors.

Long before I became a coach, I worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 20 years. At the CDC, I mentored hundreds of public health professionals, lawyers, and students. I listened to their goals, dreams, and desires. I used my experiences to help them map out their entire career. I served as a peer mentor, and a traditional mentor.

The traditional mentor is distinct from the other three mentor archetypes because the mentor talks with you.

The Coach

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) says that coaching is a partnership with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their potential.

In coaching, you won’t find your answers in a blueprint or the coach’s experience. Coaches use powerful questions and active listening to help you find answers within yourself.

As an Associate Certified Coach of the ICF, we stress the fact that coaching is a client-driven process, distinct from other service professions like counseling, consulting, training, and mentoring. Contrary to popular belief, coaches are distinct from mentors.

The goal of the mentor is to help you grow in multiple dimensions.
The goal of the coach is to focus on the performance of a specific issue.

Coaches use goals, agreements, and an engagement to measure success. A coach focuses on helping you discover, clarify, decide, improve, and advance in a specific skill or subject area.

Whether it’s a career coach, business coach, leadership coach or performance coach; coaching is a partnership among equals.

The mentor talks with you and the coach partners with you.

The Sponsor

Traditionally, the sponsor is someone in a position within an agency, company or industry that could influence your advancement in the organization. They’ll progress you through the chain of command, organizational, political, and cultural maze.

Sponsors are critical for career and business advancement. Sponsors recognize potential in upcoming talent and guide them through the organization in a different way than a coach or mentor would do.

However, a mentor or coach could also be a sponsor (if they are senior enough within an organization, industry, or field).

Sponsors are special because they have access to spaces, rooms, people, and resources.

Mentors are the mirrors. Sponsors are the spotlights. Sponsors highlight your work and recommend you for new opportunities. They’ll want you to receive recognition within your organization, field, or industry. They can recommend you to,

Attend a conference
Deliver a presentation
Get interviewed on a podcast
Join a meeting
Lead a project
Serve on a committee

Promotion is the core purpose of sponsorship. The goal isn’t to just get promoted to the next job, but to promote your knowledge, skills, and ability. It’s about promoting you.

Sponsors use their influence to make you more visible. Sponsors risk their own reputations when they recommend someone. That’s why they focus on high potential individuals that demonstrate competence and integrity.

Sponsors aren’t hands-on like mentors and coaches. They’re not directly visible to you, but they’re mentioning your name in rooms you don't have access to.

Sponsorship is important in the 21st century because of gender and racial equity. Historically, informal sponsorship has excluded women and people of color because sponsorship is often facilitated based on familiarity.

But we all need sponsors.

We all need sponsors to give us navigational support. As the workforce becomes more diverse, we're seeing more diverse leaders and sponsorships. Studies show that people with sponsors are more likely to ask for,

high profile assignments
pay raises and promotions
business opportunities

Knowing a sponsor has their back allows them to be more confident in advocating for themselves.

The mentor talks with you, the coach partners with you and the sponsor talks about you (in a good way).

The Connector

Connectors are master networkers (you know who I'm talking about!). Connectors are the ones that pair mentors, coaches, and sponsors with mentees.

When we think about connectors, we typically think they are more invested in their field or industry and less invested in you as an individual. And that’s okay.

Connectors are usually senior leaders who aren’t interested in mentoring but are motivated by legacy. They want to use their connections and networks to,

grow the field or profession
invest in the next generation of leaders
keep the field of profession modern and innovative

The mentor talks with you, the coach partners with you, the sponsor talks about you and the connector connects you with others who can help you advance your career.

Now, ask yourself…

Which mentorship archetype stands out to you right now? Take some time to think and journal about this question. At this point in your education, career, or business—what kind of support do you need?

Even though the traditional mentor-mentee relationship is vital, effective career development over the course of your life will require inputs from all four mentorship archetypes.

If you feel like you’re ready to use a coach to partner with you in your career or business development, I encourage you to explore the S.T.R.U.T. Into Coaching program or book an exploration call for a 1:1 coaching session with me.

Or, if you’d like to surround yourself with a community of like-minded women and tap into the power of peer-mentorship, then take a closer look at the Your Career Owned Collective. You’ll meet other high-achieving women whom you can explore, learn, share, and grow together as you achieve your life’s goals.