Mentoring: helping us to dare!

Leading author and psychoanalyst, Dr. Ivan Kos explores the powerful impact of mentors.
By: Popular Press Media Group (PPMG)
 
 
Leading international business consultant Dr. Ivan Kos.
Leading international business consultant Dr. Ivan Kos.
NEW YORK - July 10, 2013 - PRLog -- •    How often we lack support when deficient on some skills and don’t have anyone to ask?
•    When lacking knowledge whom can we feel safe to ask for help?
•    Who takes enough time to look at the needs workers have?

What is mentoring?

Research shows that mentoring has a strong positive impact on people’s ability to become successful in their endeavors. Through mentoring, less-experienced individuals are able to learn and grow faster under tutelage of more seasoned professionals. A study found that 63.5 percent respondents who had mentors were on the average better paid, reached their positions faster, and were more satisfied with their work and careers than the non-mentored counterparts.

Mentoring helps us to recognize what abilities and limitations we have hence focusing our attention on things we need to correct, supplement and/or modify.

Who is a mentor?

A mentor is an individual, usually older, always more experienced, who helps and guides another individual’s development and growth.

The expression mentor originates from Mentor character in Homer’s epic poem, “The Odyssey”. When Odysseus, King of Ithaca, went to fight in the Trojan War he entrusted the care of his kingdom to Mentor. Mentor was a wise loyal advisor and served as a teacher and overseer to Odysseus’s son, Telemachus. Because of Mentor’s abilities to successfully and wisely help Telemachus, the statement mentor in time became associated with an experienced adviser, protector or supporter.  Today it became synonymous with someone who coaches, trains or teaches.

What are the obstacles to successful mentoring?

•    Negatude behavior towards accomplishments and learning new things
•    Exaggerated fear to venture outside our comfort zone
•    Exaggerated fear to self-assert
•    Impatience, rationalization and need to refute when uncomfortable with a task
•    Mismatched teaching/learning styles: hesitation to speak up when not understanding for fear of angering a mentor
•    Having exaggerated fear of being labeled to be a complainer
•    Resentment due to age difference when mentor is much younger
•    Unrealistic expectations when things don’t change at once thus blaming the mentor

What do we need from a mentor?

•    To show genuine interest in personal and professional growth
•    Maintain active listening skills
•    Promote openness to feedback, both positive and negative
•    Commit to learning
•    Willing to take risks, and
•    Be self-disciplined.

Traits to look for in a mentor

On individual level:

•    Showing carrying and sensitivity to the person being mentored
•    Being honest and transparent
•    Lowering self- criticism in the person being mentored
•    Encourage and promote the value of things done well
•    Pointing to things that need improvement without negative connotation and without making a big deal.
•    Being cognizant and in tune with persons’ exaggerated fears
•    Promote discipline, focus and persistence
•    Support and encourage trust and loyalty, and
•    Advance self-expression without fear.

In business:
•    Building and promoting UPtitude in work environment
•    Maintaining organizational knowledge
•    Understanding company’s vision, goals, mission, policies and programs
•    Having professional knowledge with network of resources inside and outside the organization
•    Being able to lead and coach with patience without domineering or controlling behavior
•    Having a sense of achievements when their mentee succeed
•    Developing communicational skills – creating future allies
•    Wanting to share knowledge and experience with others
•    Enjoying motivating others
•    Asking and expecting challenging questions
•    Wanting to contribute to other people’s growth
•    Helping achieve goals
•    Listening actively
•    Providing feedback
•    Being honest and open
•    Building sustainable improvements, not quick fixes
•    Looking after the best interest of mentored person(s)
•    Expecting mistakes without making negative judgments
•    Seeing problems from different angles
•    Helping people expand their scope of responsibility
•    Being highly connected to the person being mentored
•    Challenging others with penetrating insights
•    Enhancing straight talk with humility
•    Strengthening accountability.

Mentor contribution and impact to improved individual growth, self- affirmation and productivity is of tremendous significance. Mentor challenges and dares us to expand the knowledge outside our comfort zones, amplifies and challenges our skills, energy and creativity. Mentor dares us to dare.

On a personal note
Throughout various stages in my life development diverse mentors coached and help me to develop as an individual and a professional. Coming at an early age in US, my mentor Mr. Steinberg, as I used to call him, was a decisive force to help me build confidence when learning and mastering English language through numbers. Mathematics was the vehicle by which I felt safe to communicate and slowly I amassed confidence to express my thoughts in English language. His dedication and desire to help me speak English spurted me to venture and build enough courage and self- confidence to chance making a mistake without fearing to appear foolish. That is how I learned to trust my capability to succeed and learn to communicate and venture in mastering another language that was foreign at that time to me. In essence he was a primo mobile in my journey towards my further development in the US.

Elizabeth Enczi, another influential mentor, helped me recognize the importance of having the will to commit as well as maintaining discipline and focus when wanting to reach a goal, while Dushan Kosovich was the catalyst for me to believe that I can accomplish anything I want.  

They were and still are my inspirational mentors today. They thought me the fundamental belief that, in spite of hardship and resistances that life brings in my way, I can still prevail and do what I intended to do. They thought me to cherish the power of patience and refuse to give up when difficulties arise. In essence their mentoring helped me navigate through life. They helped me DARE!

Visit http: DrIvanKos.blogspot.com
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Source:Popular Press Media Group (PPMG)
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Tags:Mentor, Mentoring, Business Practices, Uptitude, Negatude
Industry:Business, Lifestyle
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