I hope you know how important it is to have
a mentor or two.
A mentor is someone in your field who
can show you how things are done. But, more
than that, a mentor can help you learn
attitudes and techniques that will help you
act successfully in your chosen field.
The focus attitudes and
techniques is extremely important. After
all, your field is changing all the time. I
can say that without knowing what field
you're in because every field is
changing all the time. So if a mentor just
showed you how he got to be successful,
you'd be learning how people used to do what
you do.
You need to know how to be
successful in the future. And that takes
advice about how one operates a business,
treats employees, works with vendors, etc.
So you need a mentor. If you
don't have one, get one. How is another
topic. Stay tuned.
There's an old adage:
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"If you want to really understand
something, teach it to others"
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I certainly learned this when
I was teaching college. I thought I knew my
stuff until I had to teach it to someone
else. The thing that happens with teaching
is that people ask questions. They challenge
you. They don't get it until you've
addressed all the things that don't seem
quite right.
To really succeed as a
teacher, you need to develop a consistent,
complete view about how to do things. And
when you've really mastered this, then any
questions you get, from any angle, are easy.
Why? Because the answers all fit into a
complete picture. You're not coming up with
some ad hoc explanation that will be
different tomorrow.
Consistency and
reproducibility will result in a wholistic
vision that always makes sense.
Most of us do a pretty good
job of understanding what we do. With time
and experience, we develop a "big picture"
of our job, what got us here, how to do
things the right way, and how we're going to
proceed in the future.
What
we tend to lack is consistency. In
mentoring, you'll discover that you begin
describing your business in terms such as
"We do it this way . . .." or "When I have
that challenge, I always do this first."
These are literally the rules of your
success that you've never taken the time to
write down.
Now, as you begin to mentor,
you begin expressing these rules. They may
be fresh to your student. So you'll get
questions and she'll point out
inconsistencies. You'll either admit that
the rules change ("based on the following
criteria") or you'll begin building the
unifying theories that explain and describe
your procedures for success.
If you mentor to more than
one person, you'll also get new ideas and
different perspectives. You are only human.
That means you can only see the world from
your own perspective. Period. So, no matter
how good you are, you're also missing
important information about your own chosen
field.
A perfect example of this is
seen when we work with young people --
especially young smart people. They are too
inexperienced to know that they can't do
certain things. So they try things you
wouldn't. And sometimes they're successful.
They see a different world than you.
That leads to discussions
about how your excellent advice squares with
their new experience and skills. That keeps
you competitive and at the top of your game.
And it helps them to anchor their success
with proven techniques from years of
experience. And that's a great
combination for both of you.
Many
people believe that "successful" people are
always successful. Or they have a sense that
successful people have always been
successful.
Remember
that Edison discovered more than a hundred
ways not to make a light bulb before he
discovered one way that worked. Today we
have hundreds of ways to make light bulbs!
