Wednesday; February 28

One of the more common approaches to leadership these days is mentorship, but have we ever given much thought to what it means and how to go about doing it?  Often, as leaders, we are open to being mentors but we grow discouraged when people don’t seek us out for mentoring.  Have we ever thought that we might be missing out on mentoring opportunities because we are waiting to be asked rather than taking a proactive approach and reaching out to people we’d like to lead?  Yes, I realize that it can be appear to be a bit arrogant to ask someone if they’d like us to mentor them, but this is where our good reputation pays off – if we have lived lives of service, our offer will be perceived as supportive not manipulative.
Once we develop a mentoring relationship, what should we do?  I think there are four steps to mentoring:
1).  Invite our mentees to go out with us as we do what we do.  Let them know when we are going to be active and encourage them to join us.
2).  Show them what we do.  The best lessons need to be observed to be understood.
3).  Tell them what we did.  This may seem redundant – shouldn’t they know what we did just by watching us?  Not necessarily.  Unless people know what to look for, some of the nuances of service or leadership might be missed.  Debriefing can help identify actions.
4).  Explain why we did what we did.  This may be the most important part of the process.  The “what” is often easy to see, but the “why” is what makes us who we are.  Explaining our motives helps develop people to be leaders themselves.
          Are you hoping to be a mentor?  Don’t just sit around and wait to be asked.  If you are up to the challenge, find someone who needs you and get to work!
          Think About It!

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