The gift of mentoring
Quite a few people asked me in the survey I shared last week: what was the one action that helped you grow the most in your professional life?
This is an easy one: mentors!
A few years ago, when I was very young and knew it "all", I had these stories in my mind that: "no one can help me because no one does exactly what I do," "I don't have time for mentoring," "I know what I have to do, I just need to do it" etc.
Besides, having always been one of the top students in school, I had not practiced too much asking and receiving help and took pride in "I can do it by myself!"
The truth is: I can, but do I want to?
I guess I got a bit wiser now, so I started this year with a gift to myself: a new mentor. Guess what?
He is much younger than me and still, he knows so much!
He is very different from all my previous mentors and very different from the people I usually hang out with - he has both his legs covered in tattoos, imagine that!
He accepts no excuses and keeps smiling at my "sorry, there is a pandemi!c out there and ...."
He has not "figured it all out," he does not have all the answers, but in my current area of growth, he is clearly a few steps in front of me, and I want to take the shortcut. Not to mention that he does things very differently than me: trying things out, making fun of what does not work, taking mistakes lightly.
I had a major blocker: I did not know what to write about during these times.
Me: "People have changed, their interest has changed..."
He said simply: "why don't you ask them?"
Pause ⏳ ⏳ ⏳
Now you know where the survey idea is coming from...
I know: you also want his name. Sorry, he's busy for the next few months mentoring an MBA graduate who has still so much to learn about writing and publishing!
A mentor is not someone who walks ahead of us to show us how they did it. A mentor walks alongside us to show us what we can do.
-Simon Sinek
P.S. Thank you to all who answered my survey! Your questions brought me so much clarity about how I can serve you better. Truly, uncovering better ways to lead and serve!
