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A mentor – should you have one?

Careers and University

A while ago I saw an article from the Harvard Medical School (HMS) called ‘Behind every success story, a mentor’. In June 2012, HMS had a ceremony awarding four faculty members with the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, and it became apparent that some of those receiving the award were thanking the mentors they’d had earlier in their lives.

Looking back, I am aware now that I first had a mentor take me under her wing when I was 8 years old. She provided an excellent example of what sort of person I should become when I grew up, and I still try to live up to it today!!

I first consciously come across the notion of having a mentor about 10 years ago, and set out on trying to find someone who would become mine.  And wow…. what a journey that has been…. I could ramble on for ages about it…… but let’s just get to the point a little more quickly….

When you are looking for a mentor….. be prepared to look for people who can show you the ropes in different areas of life.

You might come across someone who has the professional success that you are seeking, and someone else who has the type of relationships with friends and family that you want for yourself. Someone else might have a financial result you would like to have, and someone else might have the health or spirituality that you would like to have. For example, Novak Djokovic was a pretty good football player as a kid, but, if you were lucky enough to have him mentor you, it would be a lot more useful if you were looking for instruction on your tennis game.

But…. if you come across a mentor who has the results you want in multiple areas in life, even better!!

So to answer the question raised by the topic of this blog post, in my opinion, no, you shouldn’t have ONE mentor, but you should consider having MULTIPLE mentors. Choose the area of life that you want to work on first, and go out and find what you are looking for. I find that once you have defined what you are seeking, the right people just seem to show up……

I saw another article this week, “Mentorship: Who Benefits”, which gives details of what characteristics to look for in an effective mentor, as well as how you can be an effective mentee. It’s definitely worth a look.

I would love to hear your personal story regarding mentors, so feel free to comment!!

Amanda :-)

2 replies to “A mentor – should you have one?”

  1. Thank you maree for the kind words, but it takes 2 to have a good mentoring relationship! Maree is a person willing to step outside the normal boundaries and to take risks. It is easy to support others when there is an open and trusting relationship where the “hard questions” can be tackled head on.

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