There is so much talk these days about the importance of mentorship. It seems like people feel that their career can’t be successful without one. I sometimes get the image of a Carol Burnett character hunched over in a dark, dusty, back office saying, “If only I’d had a mentor…”
It’s true. There are times when a mentor can provide perspectives and information you’d never thought of and that feel like real shortcuts. They can help you with the “I don’t know what I don’t know.” However, if you are lacking a fairy princess who follows and protects you, all is not lost. Here are a couple of musings on mentorship.
First, being proactive in your life is worth 10 mentors. I sometimes get the sense, like with the back office character, that people are waiting for a mentor in order to make a move. It sounds a bit like, “If only I had…(a six-figure income, a thinner body, the love of my life), then I could (be a success, really be myself, have confidence). The truth is that we get to decide where our career or life is going, and that first step is the most critical. For more on being proactive, check out “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”
Second, not every mentor is Batman to your Robin, bigger, older and wiser, but otherwise just like you. People mentor us for different things, in different ways. Carla Harris in “Expect to Win,” distinguishes between the mentor, the sponsor and the advisor. The mentor you can tell, “The good, the bad and the ugly.” The sponsor, she says, you can tell, “The good, the good, and the good.” This is a person who you have identified as a supporter, who will use their influence on your behalf. Finally, the advisor is someone who can help you with discrete issues and questions. What if then, you let yourself have a board of directors. A few advisor/mentors who could help you along the way. You know the way; you are being proactive.
Expanding on this last thought. What if you already have mentors and you don’t even know it. In the early parts of my career, I didn’t think my stay-at-home mom could be a mentor to me. I thought she hadn’t experienced the ups and downs of corporate life. In my mid-30’s, however, I realized that she had gone back to school in her 40’s, reinvented herself, and reached the highest levels of management in her work. That gave me the vision to step away from cosmetics and reinvent myself as a coach. And once I did, I found a mentor in a peer, one of my closest friends, whose family had their own mid-sized real estate firm. She guided me in the ways of entrepreneurship and I sometimes think I couldn’t have done it without her. These are just two, and it wouldn’t take much to think of many, many more.
Would you take a few minutes to think about who has been a mentor to you, and who might serve in an advisor/mentor role? Feel free to share stories on the blog site.
Stay warm!
Claire