Organizational Mentoring

Mentoring is defined as a servant who desires to teach, monitor, and discover new methods on how to make others successful.  A mentor places their wants and desires second to the mentee.  That does not mean that the mentee needs are more important, but it means that the mentors’ pride must be in check once the mentee has achieved their goals.  The role of a mentor is a guide or a navigator and never a political force of negativity.

Picture the mentor as a parent who is teaching their child how to ride a bike for the first time.  The mentor sets the tone by counting and prepping the mentee to pedal when being pushed.  The mentor them pushes the bike while holding on to the seat until there is enough speed and then the mentor will let go.  This will then force the mentee to take on the tasks themselves with the mentor cheering in the background.  The underlining terms gives a description of how the relationship between and mentor and a mentee should be.

1.      Prepping – Getting the mentee to see the vision and the requirements that it will take to get to the end goal.

2.      Pedal – This the time in which the mentee and the mentor sits down and discuss goal setting and getting the plan in operational order before taking off or launching.

3.      Pushes – This is the time in which the plan is launched and the mentee need more support and encouragement to continue (fight, fight, fight!)

4.      Speed – As the mentor, you set the tone and the speed in which the mentee can accomplish the goal.  Some mentees learn faster than others; therefore, recognizing the mentees’ pedagogy levels is very important to prevent setback or stalls (audio, visual, kinetic).

5.      Let go – This is the time in which you can see the mentee demonstrate independence in judgement and in skill.

I hope that this message helps many people learn the art of becoming a mentor instead of a hindering force or just a person who gives advice.  Mentorship is a gift that must be carefully disseminated to fellow employees, students, etc in efforts to prevent a waste in time and efforts.

Take care and be in good health,