Note: Eric Rodriguez is the voice of The Millennial View here at Management Excellence. Eric’s guest posts offer perspectives and insights from the eyes of an early career professional navigating the challenge of today’s workplace.
Everyone wants to achieve success, and those of us new to the workforce are no exception to this rule.
In the quest to climb the corporate ladder many early career professionals plan to go to grad school, work overtime, and some plant their lips firmly on their boss’s posterior hoping to get ahead.
Some of these methods work. Grad school is great; if someone has the time and money, working hard is a cornerstone of success; but it isn’t everything, and sucking up might work although it’s sleazy, shameful, and nobody likes an ass kisser, with the exception of bad management.
The Case for Mentoring:
A simple step that we can engage in to help our careers along is to find a mentor to guide and coach us in the workplace. A great mentor is a blessing because of the knowledge that they have accumulated through years of experience in the corporate jungle and their willingness to pass it on to their mentees.
A mentor knows what it was like to be a newcomer in the workplace. They have experienced success and failure, they probably have had bad bosses, and they have definitely learned lessons that many of us have yet to experience.
There is no silver bullet for success, but working with a good mentor provides an opportunity for seeing our developing careers from a different perspective. We have an opportunity to gain some valuable lessons and apply them towards building a successful livelihood.
A young professional not having a mentor is like a boxer not having a trainer. The boxer, or in this case the newbie, may have tons of talent, but if they don’t have somebody to offer them advice, give constructive criticism, or share stories of their experiences, their chances at winning their bouts in the ring or in the boardroom are limited.
Mentoring-It Works:
Many of my friends have shared stories on how a mentor saved them from taking a bad job, assisted them in navigating the labyrinth of office politics, or in some cases gave them their first start out of school. Most of my contemporaries appreciate being mentored. We truly want to listen to what other successful professionals have to say about their work experience and learn in the process.
In addition to providing guidance, Mentors also help us see where our careers can go in the future. When we look at our mentors and the things they achieved it plants a positive thought in our head, “If he or she can accomplish these feats – I know that I have the potential to do it as well.”
If it were socially acceptable I would hang a sign outside of my cubicle that would say, Mentors Wanted. That’s how strongly I feel about the power of mentoring.
We all Win:
What mentor wouldn’t be proud of their protégé when they masterfully executed a project or when they see their mentee develop into a polished product? And what protégé wouldn’t think that mentoring hasn’t made them a better employee and made them aware of new approaches to solving problems that they haven’t thought of before?
By working together and engaging in mentoring, we can bridge a gap and form a bond that creates a mutual respect for each other’s talents and experiences. And remember, one day we will be management and there will be a new generation coming into the workplace. If we experience good mentoring from those who came before us in the workplace, we’re going to want to pass that knowledge and experience to the new professionals entering the workforce.
This creates better employees and a better work environment. Mentors should always be wanted and welcomed in any career.
Interesting post, but there’s two things you don’t take into account.
1. What’s in it for the mentor? If you can’t answer that question, you’re going to have difficulty getting someone whose insight is worthwhile to burn the time and calories working with you.
2. It’s extremely unlikely you’ll end up managing in a company where you start working. To be effective, you need to learn lessons, see different corporate environments, work in different countries and cultures and have the chance to make some horrendous mistakes. Mistakes that are likely to cost you your job.
Mistakes are the by product of taking risks and chances. Sometimes you’ve got to fail in order to gain the strength and insight to know when to fight and when to let things go. That’s why it’s called the “school of hard knocks” as opposed to University education, which is called “Ivory Tower”.
Think of it this way, if you don’t have any grinding, crushing failures, it’s unlikely you’ll have any stunning successes. Show me an executive who hasn’t had some major failures, and I’ll show you a boot-licking “yes man”.
You have some good point, but rather than rushing to become a manager or looking for mentors, try learning a skill. A skill is something that can be verified in less than five minutes over the phone and overrides all other concerns. Medicine is a skill. It is easily verified and when you’re sick, you don’t care if the doctor is black, white, blue, male, female or other. If their skill can make you better, that’s all you care about.
The same is true in business. Wiring a network is a skill. Programming a computer is a skill. Taking a customer through a complex sales process is a skill. Accounting is a skill.
There are lots of smart, educated twenty-somethings energy and ambition. However, there aren’t all that many who develop a skill. What’s a skill? Malcolm Gladwell got it right. A skill takes about 10,000 hours to develop.
Focus your energy on developing a hard skill and you’ll answer the question about why someone would burn the calories to mentor you.
Andrew you made some very good points and let me be on the record that I am a firm believer in “The School of Hard Knocks” and learning a new skill to get ahead in a career. Last week I wrote a post that addressed the topic of failure and picking up new techniques. It can be found here if you would like to read it: https://artpetty.com/2011/05/13/the-millennial-view-fixing-our-shortcomings/
What’s in it for the mentor?
I guess this all depends on who you ask two of my close mentors who are well established and successful professionals have mentored me and others out of the kindness of their hearts because they want to give back and see us develop into valuable professionals. I guess the biggest benefit of mentoring is releasing someone’s true potential and helping them grow into an invaluable contributor. In my opinion, mentoring should be a selfless exercise. Does that mean that there aren’t benefits that come from it? Hardly, mentoring build networks, mentoring helps people relate better to different generations, and mentoring builds satisfaction in helping somebody achieve their dreams. Mentoring should be one tool in a repertoire of skills that people should posses, and I can’t wait to give back what I’ve learned to others in the future.
I see the “what’s in it for me?” differently than Andrew. Many years ago when I was a young professional, several people mentored me and I benefitted tremendously. Now, it’s my turn to repay the favor to others. I see my mentoring activities as continuing that positive cycle of helping grow the next generation of leaders.
Jennifer, I think you nailed it when you said, “I see my mentoring activities as continuing that positive cycle of helping grow the next generation of leaders.” Mentoring is the best kind of karma I can think of, and hopefully one day, like you, I’ll be in the position to give back to others.
Great post and an excellent question by Andrew. Here’s a view from someone nearing his 60th birthday.
In my late teens, a mentor guided me into a sales career and mentors continued to guide me throughout my career as VP of Sales & Marketing and then as CEO of my own company.
Why did they do it and why do I do it today?
Call it paying forward.
I suspect the people who mentored me, were mentored as well. Don’t we imitate the behavior of our leaders and the people we respect and admire? Someone who is mentored is likely to do the same. This is a primary reason I do.
I was raised to believe if everyone does well, I do well, and if everyone does better, I do better, and helping others is the surest way to make that happen.
Why me?
I was hungry for knowledge and skills to become the best I could at what I did. Not everyone has that hunger. The Pareto rule of 80/20 probably applies here; 20% does what it takes to excel.
I am not inclined to mentor someone who does not want to improve and is uninterested in my help. I am attracted to people that want to improve and think I like being mentored. Motivations and character play a role in my decision of who I mentor and I’m sure that’s true of other mentors.
As a postgraduate of the school of hard knocks, nothing can replace taking your licks in the real world and hard work – 10,000 hours+ to gain skills. But the wisdom and values imparted by mentors on how to best use skills trumps the skills themselves; IMHO.
Mentors enjoy paying back and forward. They are drawn to help up and comers who are eager to learn and grow who remind them of when they were green, young and eager, and taken under someone’s wing.
Gary, great comments, and I really do think that mentors are a blessing to a profession. We’re all going to have a couple of screw ups during our careers, but a mentor can help us bounce back from them and make us better in the long run. I would also like to say that it takes courage to be a mentor because sometimes offering advice and criticism to someone isn’t the easiest thing to do. But, if a mentee is hungry for knowledge and a chance to build their character they’ll listen to their mentor’s wisdom and advice. Mentors make us better. By the way, thanks for passing on your knowledge to others!