I have been fortunate to have worked in many different jobs throughout my career. I have lead teams such as: A housekeeping and laundry department in a nursing home where my small team and I kept the place clean, a restaurant General Manager with a staff of 50+, an operations call center manager where we had over 400 people working in the facility, and a system analytics manager with a team spread across the country in three different states. To now, managing teams in all US timezones and India. One of the key aspects to driving my success; a mentor.
Through all of these experiences I have worked people with different personalities, motivations, experience levels, and pay scales. I have learned that every situation is unique and that you must be willing to listen, learn, and fail, to make sure that you are the best you can be for yourself and your team.
The Need of a Mentor
When new challenges and opportunities were presented to me I did not have any mentors that I could look toward for assistance, or to run ideas against. I had to go it alone…and lots of mistakes were made. But, as soon as I was given the opportunity to work with a mentor I realized what I was missing and how valuable a resource it could be.
My first experience in a program I was lucky enough to have a mentor who worked with me, taking the time to really plan out a series of sessions that focused in on what I needed to learn – though at the time, my ‘I know everything’ attitude may not have truly realized it. They challenged me to challenge myself, both through trusting myself and also making sure that my ‘gut feeling’ included some well-reasoned logic behind it.
Even today, with my 20+ years of work experience and at least 10 years since those first mentor’s lessons, I still find value in my current mentoring relationship. While I don’t need the people and management lessons that I had gotten so much from in my earlier career, I find it helpful to run ideas off others and gain the perspective of a mentor that is outside my own areas of expertise.
In my opinion, it is critical for a well-rounded leader to be able to look at the same problem through several different sets of goggles in order to find the best short and long term solutions to our problems. A good mentor/mentee partnership can help you do that.
Mentorships Run Both Ways
It is important to remember that a Mentor/Mentee relationship isn’t just about passing on knowledge from the Mentor to the Mentee. The knowledge transfer should be bidirectional. If a mentor doesn’t also learn from their mentee, then that mentor isn’t engaging appropriately in the relationship. They must lean in and listen to their mentee with an attitude open to learning. One of the most important skills in business is to understand the perspective to others no matter what your rank/title is. Whether you are a VP or a young person straight out of college. Each of us provides a new way of looking at the world, business, and ways of dealing with problems that can enlighten others.
Is a Mentor/Mentee experience critical for someone’s development – no. Is it something that can provide extremely beneficial – yes. Would I recommend getting involved in a mentor/mentee program if it is available – absolutely.
To chat with me about mentorships and how it can help you in your career, fill out a little info here and I will responds as soon as I get your message.
