Mentorship plays a crucial role in people’s lives. Not only is the work important, but it is also rewarding. Many mentors cite helping others as the most meaningful contribution they make in their careers. Perhaps you’ve thought about becoming an executive mentor. As you formulate ideas for what this role might look like for you, these mentorship quotes will surely inspire you to make your next move.
People have been reaping the rewards of mentoring since the days of Plato and Aristotle. Its benefits are felt from people across industries, job roles and time periods.
Importance of mentor quotes
Mentor motivational quotes is beneficial as great mentors know how to help people work towards their individual goals and inspire you to keep walking the path that gets you there. The quotes about mentorship and leadership are like a support anchor that can multiply your own impact. As you help them build strong cultures, embrace change, coach employees effectively and achieve more in business, your input influences their success and touches entire companies and communities.
What does a mentor do?
What does a mentor do? A mentor helps individuals discover new facets of themselves. Sometimes, we need another person to show us skills and capacities we never knew we had.
Mentors bring lots of experience, they can provide constructive feedback to mentees and support them through all areas of their professional life. Whether sharing past experiences, opening up new opportunities to mentees or helping them build their skills, mentors are role models.
Best mentorship quotes
Now that you know what a mentor does, it’s time to look at some great quotes to inspire you on your journey.
- Bob Proctor, author & lecturer
A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.
- Oprah Winfrey, media executive, author, and philanthropist
A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.
- Ahmad R Kazi, author, investor, and business enthusiast
True mentors have this unique ability to pick up vibes that everyone else misses from within you.
Wisdom from their own experiences
Great mentors don’t just impart wisdom from their own experiences. They take time to understand another person’s perspective and the space needed for them to uncover the wisdom within them. And these fall are also few of the best mentorship quotes.
- Steven Spielberg, American film director
The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.
- Bernard Kelvin Clive, Ghannian author, speaker, and corporate trainer.
True mentors don’t make their mentees a clone of themselves.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, writer, and lecturer
What I need is someone who will make me do what I can.
- Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer
You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself.
- Benjamin Franklin – Former US President
Tell me, and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me, and I learn.
- M.Forster, English author
Spoon feeding, in the long run, teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.
- Toby Keith, American musician
As a mentor, you have to be willing to put yourself in your mentee’s shoes to understand their struggles that they deal with.
Inspirational mentorship quotes
Mentorship is about giving but mentors also receive. Mentees also give back to mentors in a meaningful way.
- Michelle Obama, lawyer, writer, and former First Lady
“One person might be senior and be wiser and have more experience, but I’ve learned a lot from the people I mentor.”
- Booker T. Washington, American educator, author, and advisor to several U.S. Presidents
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
- Richie Norton, entrepreneur & author
Mentors change lives, but students change mentors’ lives more.
- Clint Eastwood, American actor, film director, and producer
What I think the mentor gets is the great satisfaction of helping somebody along, helping somebody take advantage of an opportunity that maybe he or she did not have.
Mentor motivational quotes that open doors
As a mentor, you can clear the way. Mentors have the unique opportunity to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion. They can sponsor and amplify voices that aren’t being heard.
- Donovan Bailey, Olympic athlete
Every kid needs a mentor. Everybody needs a mentor.
- Maria Taylor, musician
I think it’s so important as a woman, and especially as a minority, to lift as you climb. So having people shadow you or mentoring people — that’s important to me.”
Mentors change lives
Mentors help in improving the life trajectories of those they coach. What kind of work could be more important?
- Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
- John Wooden, former American basketball coach
A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.
- Stefan Fatsis, author & journalist
How you coach them is how they’re going to play.
- Maya Angelou, American writer
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”