While lockdown has kept you from traveling the world, enjoying a meal inside your favorite restaurant, and spending quality face-to-face time with family and friends, it doesn’t have to stop you from doing good and being a great person. With the daily commute cut from your schedule and office drive-bys coming to a screeching halt, you are left with an abundance of added time to your schedule, so why not put it to good use and become a better corporate citizen through virtual mentoring? 

Virtual mentoring offers a unique opportunity for you to build relationships, deepen humanity and strengthen ties in the community — all from the comfort and convenience of your own home. You don’t even need to leave the couch. 

Whether you are looking to grow as a leader, adopt a growth mindset, develop your emotional intelligence or give back to society for everything it has given you, sharing your perspective and providing one-to-one guidance is as mutually beneficial for mentors as it is for mentees. It provides an outlet to engage in dialogue, share ideas, inspire new ways of thinking — and most importantly, go through this so-called journey of life with someone who can influence and broaden your worldviews. 

If you are in a position to help someone, do it. 

If you are gainfully employed and your company gives you the time to volunteer (thank you, ServiceNow) — becoming a virtual mentor is a simple and effective way to help rebuild the community. Especially with the coronavirus crisis looming over our heads, racial injustice and strife, and the economic downturn taking a toll on society; more than ever, society needs people who have the courage to lead and the willingness to act. When work gives you that opportunity to give back, show the world that not even the lockdown nor the lowest of the lows can stop you from being great. If you are in a position to help someone, do it. And if you need more inspiration, here are nine reasons why you should volunteer your time and consider virtual mentoring. 

Be an ally and show up for someone. As the uncertainty lingers without much end in sight, we are all navigating tough terrain. Unemployment rates are still at an all-time high while jobless claims continue to grow. The pandemic brings an insurmountable feeling of stress, fear and anxiety as infection rates continue to trend upwards. Show up for the people you care about, your community and lift them up. It only takes one ‘hello’ and ‘how are you doing’ to open up the lines of communication. 

Keep yourself in check. Far too often, we’re consumed with work and fall into routines and habits that may make us complacent in our roles or fail to challenge new ways of thinking. Surrounding yourself with people who are curious, inquisitive and unassuming will keep you on your toes and oftentimes, encourage you to consider new approaches to old problems. 

Take your conversations to higher altitudes. Mentoring enables you to break away from your day-to-day job and that narrow focus when you are stuck in execution mode. Oftentimes, it’s hard to look beyond the days, weeks and months until you bring your project home. When you mentor someone, you are able to recalibrate your thoughts and look holistically at the journey of your career and enlighten someone who hopes to go down that same path. 

Build a sphere of influence. When you exercise your domain knowledge and share it with your peers, colleagues and those aspiring to follow in your path, you invite people to join your inner circle. By making people part of your conversation, you encourage dialogue, share challenges and success stories, and influence outcomes. Developing these habits will build a community around shared practices that will ultimately will expand reach and awareness for your domain. 

Influence and shape the future of work. When you build a community and actively contribute, you become a leader and authority in the space. By continuing to build that body of knowledge, you push past existing boundaries and replace dated practices with modern approaches to problem solving that will adapt with change and uncertainty. New ways of thinking and doing will emerge and revolutionize the future of work.  

Pave the way for successors. If you are passionate about your role, be vocal and become an advocate for the next generation of workers. Many of those who are looking for mentorship are just entering the workforce, looking for a career change, hoping to advance in their current role or are simply at a crossroad in their career. Give them that nudge, be it words of wisdom, motivation or encouragement, that will take their career to new heights and pave the way for their following. 

It’s what servant leaders do. The act of becoming a leader comes with the great responsibility of serving others. “It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead,” according to Robert Greenleaf at The Center for Servant Leadership. When you are in the service of others, you listen, you collaborate, you build trust and you empower others to grow and develop. Whether you are mentoring someone at the start of their career journey or meet them at a crossroad, you have the ability to shape someone’s career or help them achieve their dreams. 

Image Source: Servant Leadership

Pay it forward. If you look back on your career journey, you’ll know that it took a village to get you where you are today. From your grammar school teachers, counselors and tutors to your colleagues, peers and managers, each person played a role in shaping the person you’ve become. Even those kind strangers you met along the way or that person that lifted your spirits with a smile are part of your everyday journey. Be that person and pay it forward to someone else. 

It feels good. And if you need another reason, it just feels good. It feels good to show up for someone and be a soundboard, an advocate and a friend. It feels good to invite someone to have a seat at the table, offer counseling and guidance, and build empathy and trust. It feels good to go through your career journey with someone. 

Today, more than four in ten workers who don’t have a mentor say they’ve considered quitting their job in the past three months, but those who do have a mentor are significantly happier at their jobs and are more likely than those without to say they’re well paid (79 percent vs. 69 percent) and to believe that their contributions are valued by their colleagues (89 percent vs. 75 percent). Dedicating a few hours a month, and becoming a mentor and advocate for someone can unleash boundless growth and potential.

Being in a unique position to give back by being your authentic self is a remarkable act of kindness and gift that can change your life and someone else’s. It’s a calling to accept the social contract that brings people together and creates deep, human interactions. It challenges you to grow intrinsically and be a better version of yourself. The question remains, are you up for that challenge? If so, there are plenty of organizations that offer mentorship programs. SFBIG, PMI SF and SF IABC are a few non-profits in the SF Bay Area that offer virtual mentoring and are actively seeking volunteers. Become a mentor today.