Mentoring 101

It’s funny how the universe sends you just what you need right when you ask for it – I mean, let’s be honest – the universe isn’t going to send you EVERYTHING you want, whenever you want it – but in general, I think that if you send the universe positivity and ask for what you want – it will send it right back at you in one form or another.

I’ve been feeling a lack of a challenge as of late and have needed to figure out something new that would bring some excitement to my world – Yes, I am aware that I am bringing a new life into the world in March or April of next year and that will be plenty of a challenge – but life is short – so why not find something new to experience in the mean time?

Westminster College, where I went to school, reached out to me about a month ago giving me an “alumni calling”. They asked if I would be willing to mentor an undergraduate student at Westminster for a couple of semesters. Not only was I flattered, but surprised that my qualifications made me eligible to be a mentor. I’ve always been interested in mentoring and really enjoyed mentoring the students I teached and managed at the Westminster Newspaper when I was editor-and-chief, but I haven’t had much of a chance to mentor as much as I’d like to the past couple of years.

I was nervous about our first meeting, because let’s face it – I am still young and wanted to be able to offer this person something great and memorable from this experience… so I started brainstorming what I wanted to give and get from this mentoring experience. I thought about all of the great mentors that I have had in my life – from teachers, to co-workers, to friends and family members.

One person in particular always sticks out for me when I think of a good mentor – Kevin McCallum. I worked for him when I first got into marketing at 1-800 CONTACTS. I’ve spoken a lot about Kevin in my blogs in the past, but it’s because I’ve never had a comparable mentor. I valued SO many things about him. He was unselfish – he always wanted those who worked for him to learn something new, to be pushed out of their comfort zone, to feel encouraged and supported beyond belief to do and achieve anything they dreamed about. There was never a dream that wasn’t achievable with him. He delegated challenging projects and opportunities to those who didn’t necessarily have the qualifications, but had trust that they could achieve and learn from the experience. No one wanted to disappoint him because everyone loved him and felt his positivity exude throughout our department – so everyone over-achieved and we met our goals without a problem. Also – he was extremely confident and well respected in the company and in the marketing world so he had a lot to offer and everyone learned something new every time they had a conversation with him. I think a lot of the reason he was so respected in the marketing community is that he hired people who were very qualified in various fields of marketing – and let them learn and grow through various projects and challenges and he learned from them. He didn’t assume he knew everything – he constantly felt he could learn something new from any individual he came in contact with.

I could go on and on about Kevin and how much of a positive impact he’s made on my life… but now it was my turn to be a good mentor… and what does that mean?

Looking back on what I learned from Kevin, I knew a few things right off the bat –
1) I don’t know everything about marketing, but I can help this person understand what I do know and learn from them as well. (Help the person I am mentoring learn something new – not only about work, but life.)
2) I can be a positive role model and share my passion for what I do and how I feel about life.
3) I can help with goal setting, and accountability.
4) I can motivate this individual to achieve what they’d like to achieve.
5) I can teach “the power of networking”.
6) I can work towards getting this person promoted in life and in work.
7) I can help this person focus on their accomplishments and strengths.
8) I can teach this person to behave like an owner and help them focus on mastering their projects, and delivering on what they promise.
9) I can teach this person to have an opinion and share that opinion.
10) I can teach this person the importance of accuracy and thoroughness.

How I started this process was by asking a few questions:
1) What are your goals in this mentoring process? What do you want to learn (please give me at least 10)?
2) Have you faced any problems in your work or school environments that you'd like to work through?
3) What are your strengths (please give me at least 5)?
4) What are your favorite successes in life thus far (please give me at least 5)?

I am really looking forward to learning from this experience.

"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you."

Bob Proctor
Author, Speaker and Success Coach