I think everyone wants to improve at what he does. Mentoring helps here.
I recently have heard a presentation about a couple of main principles of Toyota manufacturing processes that is believed helped the company to succeed. Mentoring process is one of them.
It helps every employee to improve his own production process and achieve desirable “target condition”.
I am lucky that everything around me happens in the very best way even when I have no conscious plan for it. Same with mentoring. My mentor found me. Which I am very grateful for. If you are not so very lucky, I suggest to find your mentor yourself. I think it should be more senior (in term of experience) professional than you and you both need to know that mentoring is happening between you.
In my case, my mentor was very organized and prepared. We had a mentoring session once per quarter. My mentor had some questions for each session and was taking notes. Every time he started with reminding me what we were talking last time, what I was happy about, what concerns did I have, then followed by looking into how my situation changed after last time. What I have tried, I have achieved, what doubts do I have, etc.
Though first sessions were weird a bit for me, but later I found it very useful for my development. Sometimes you need to say it loudly in order to get it yourself.
Thanks Mats! :)