Hint: Probably not if you’re belligerent, opinionated or foolhardy
The question you might be asking is whether the people in this photo would benefit from a mentor, to which I would respond, “Almost certainly not”.
No amount of carefully considered and delivered advice will help those who recklessly disregard common sense.
On the other hand, those I’ve mentored have advanced their careers, completed a Masters degree, written a book, succeeded with physical challenges and exited their business on favourable terms. That’s enough to demonstrate that mentoring can be very helpful in securing successful outcomes.
Would you benefit from a mentor?
Take this quick quiz to find out –
- You’re looking for an experienced businessperson to act as a sounding board – not so much for the “it” – what your business does or career entails – but for success in life itself
- You would benefit from regularly checking in with a respected third party to keep you on track
- You feel that you could and should be accomplishing more
- You are about to take on a big new challenge, in or out of work, that’s rather intimidating
- You are thinking about a major change in your business or your life
When mentoring works
In my experience, a mentoring program will likely work when four key elements are all present –
- There’s a genuine desire to change or to improve a situation – so much so that the candidate is prepared to do things differently to achieve the desired outcome.
- You can’t put in what God left out. The person being mentored must have the talent, judgement, resources and resilience to achieve the goals that have been set.
- The person must make the time to meet with the mentor, be open minded enough to consider new ideas and to implement agreed action items.
- An enjoyable rapport in a trusted environment, where it’s safe to discuss mistakes, doubts and challenges without feeling judged.
One of the biggest benefits is taking the time out to prepare for the meetings – getting one’s thoughts straight to be able to succinctly explain challenges is often the first step in resolving them.
At the bottom of this article I have provided a checklist of potential triggers, any one of which might be sufficient reason to appoint a personal mentor.
Here are two instances where I have personally benefited from personal coaching –
- Helping me to achieve a challenging set of work KPI’s at a time when I had lots going on with the family alongside doing my MBA
- When I was at a major “What’s next?” crossroad of my career
In each case I am convinced that far better outcomes resulted from having a wise owl in my corner, providing me with excellent input and encouragement.
What to look for in a mentor
Happily, this is quite straightforward –
- Track record in helping people in similar situations to you
- You respect the mentor and look forward to your meetings
What’s involved with my mentoring
Whilst periodically meeting up for a chat (or pep talk) is fine, I’ve found more success by following one or both structured processes I’ve created –
- Personal Success Plan (PSP) – an all encompassing, one page document which lays out what you want to achieve in life and the guiding principles to help you get there. (Follow this link for a case study example.)
- Achievement frameworks – a set of tools to help you work effectively, stay on track and learn from the challenges you’ve experienced. (Follow this link for a case study example.)
Contact me
Please feel free to reach out if what you have read here resonates with you. Perhaps by working together you will experience new levels of success and experience the satisfaction which comes from conquering hard things.
