How to be a Successful Mentor: Managing Challenges, Avoiding Pitfalls, and Recognizing Benefits

Mentoring is much discussed in public accounting firms, industry, government and academe. But many people fail to fully understand what being a true mentor means, as well as its potential benefits and pitfalls. In short, being a true mentor, as outlined below, is very time consuming, but offers substantial benefits for career and personal growth. In this paper, we identify the attributes of true mentors, along with specific benefits and pitfalls, and then we provide some suggestions regarding issues that can be challenging, including cross-gender and cross-racial mentoring relationships, as well as potential work-family conflict.