Mentoring

Welcome to Friday Morning Leadership! We're talking about Servant Leader Roadmap by Kara Bramblett, and today we look at Characteristic Number Eight: Mentoring.

Suze Orman said: "The key to being a good mentor is to help people become more of who they already are—not make them more like you." And I think that’s good advice. You know, from my experience, mentorship is lacking in both the job world, and it’s almost foreign as a concept in much of corporate America. Unfortunately, however, as leaders, our mission is really to create other high-quality leaders, Leaders are multipliers. Leaders empower others. In servant leadership, you mentor others and guide them on high-quality principles to help them in their personal growth.

Information obviously shared in this process is specific to the one being mentored, so you want to ask questions like: What are their needs? What areas do they need to grow in—personally or professionally?

As a growing leader, I’m gonna recommend that you find someone you respect and want to model their leadership style—and develop a relationship with them. It might be a bit of a stretch, but spend some time noticing who around you has the success, the relationships, or the lifestyle (or all three of those), and that might be a good person to be a mentor for you. High-quality mentoring really enhances your chances of success—and isn’t that what we’re after?

So let’s ask and answer the question: What is mentoring?
Mentoring is really the process of growth and development of two people. The mentor gives their time, their knowledge, their skills, and experience to the person they’re mentoring. And the person being mentored is often (and usually) less experienced, It would be similar to being in an apprenticeship-type program.

And I—I know since back in my 30s—I’ve had many mentors in my life, both spiritually and professionally, and it’s greatly helped me to grow personally and professionally. I found people that had knowledge and experience in areas I was lacking—and that’s key.

You know, from experience, people without mentors are prone to make mistakes that really could be avoided by leveraging the wisdom and maturity of a more experienced person. Without guidance, they’ve got to rely on just what they know instead of learning from someone who’s already been down those roads, rThey’ll often reinvent the proverbial wheel, And we don’t want to do that. If they’re really trying to operate on their own knowledge, that’s what they’re doing—and this is really foolish and counterproductive. Because let’s face it: none of us knows everything.

So mentorship is critical for being a true leader and providing direction and growth to someone. So why do so few pursue this valuable resource? Well, there are a number of reasons, but I think it comes down to: The best way to learn is not from your own mistakes but from the wisdom and experience of others. And some people don’t want to do that.

Can you imagine someone coming right out of medical school and practicing medicine without going through a formal internship or residency? I don’t think so.

And it needs to be said that mentors should also have a genuine interest in your professional development That’s why they’re there. They’re really your personal servant leader, and they should have the skills of both listening and empathy well-developed to be able to coach you, to guide you in personal development, and provide solutions for it. They also need to keep confidentiality and be committed to your success. That’s really important too.

Hopefully, you’re having someone come to your mind, or you’re thinking about it. So here’s how mentoring benefits the team, the individuals, and the mentors:

A mentor really should have skills such as:

• Open-mindedness (they’re open to new ideas),
• Mindful listening (we talked about the characteristic of servant leadership—listening),
• Inquisitiveness (they should be asking questions—that’s a great thing; that’s what a leader does),
• Honesty, and
• Self-awareness (they know what their values are).

For the team, the benefits include:

• Knowledge transfer,
• Structured learning,
• Identifying high-potential individuals,
• Fostering culture, and
• Fine-tuning soft skills.

For the mentor, the benefits include:

• Building relationships,
• Supporting and driving innovation,
• Increasing professional contacts,
• Sharpening coaching skills, and
• Personal satisfaction.

For the person being mentored, they benefit by:

• Developing new skills,
• Guiding others,
• Gaining professional growth,
• Understanding the team and culture, and
• Having the potential to be a mentor themselves in the future. They learn by being in the process of mentoring.

So let’s briefly recap mentoring:

• Mentoring is really—again—a way of giving back and passing on skills that you’ve learned through your journey.
• You demonstrate genuine interest and commitment to the individuals you lead and mentor. That’s part of servant leadership.
• You provide constructive feedback and are open-minded and inquisitive throughout your guidance.
• You’re there to help them and empower them to greater skills and achievement.

Okay, so thank you so much for joining me this morning! Feel free to hit the vote button or share if this was helpful or impacted you in a significant way. I hope it did. And you can also connect with me on the social media links that I’ll be providing.

So have an awesome Monday! Bye-bye!