How Mentoring Can Be Transformative

Last week, we discussed what it means to be a mentor and how a mentoring relationship can benefit both the mentor and the mentee. This week, I will share my personal experience regarding how mentoring can be transformative.

Earlier in my career, I had the privilege of working in an organization where people naturally took it upon themselves to help others. We had no formal mentoring program; I just worked alongside many great leaders who organically who went out of their way to mentor our up and comers. They were superb mentors, helping people learn and grow, and, in fact, those they mentored went on to mentor others themselves. This cycle perpetuated a winning organizational culture in which employees felt valued, part of a team, and invested in our organization.

Specifically, our mentoring included helping others develop knowledge and skills to handle difficult situations, to become better leaders, to learn how to a great teammate, the importance of seeking input and advice from others and, in general, how to succeed in our work for our clients.

For example, over coffee, breakfast, or lunch, we would discuss issues like the challenges of a single woman entertaining a client, or explain the long-term client benefits of superior risk management services versus low price, or determine what should be included in a proposal and how it should be structured, or how to take full advantage of our global organization’s resources. These discussions contained real-world advice and insight that I doubt formal training could have provided as well and that on-the-job experience would have taken much longer to instill. And they were fun!

I could practically watch people grow.

The common thread was the mentors’ attitudes. We wanted to help others succeed. We were secure in ourselves—as the saying goes today, we were comfortable in our own skin. Instead of seeing up and comers as threats, we recognized their talent and the valuable contributions they could make to our team. Their successes were our successes.

Mentoring is a timeless success factor. Currently, I am working with a talented and highly successful consulting firm, and they are committed to helping their younger associates grow in their careers. I have every confidence that these mentors will be very effective in helping others with their careers as they truly care and have a genuine desire to serve and help their younger teammates.

My question to you is: Who do you mentor? How do you mentor? Remember, mentoring takes dedication, and even a small time commitment can reap huge rewards. And there are rewards for you, as well – the satisfaction of helping others learn, grow, and succeed and, very likely, improvement of your own leadership skills.

Would you like to share your mentoring experience with me and our readers? Please email me!