Posted on Jul 3, 2015
How can we better mentor our junior personnel?
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Mentor
Professional Development
Mentorship
Posted 9 y ago
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Our Jr members need to have a better understanding of Psychology of Mind Sciences. We live in an era in time where we are not nessessarily worried about cold war politics, were concerned with the next lone wolf. It’s a different culture, a different era. A Holy Jihad is also mentioned to be an “Inner Struggle”, which does not always mean a violent aggression but a type of ware fare we have never seen before. Our Jr members need to be able to understand behavior changes, why they now suddenly have mental cognitive changes they have never experienced before. These changes could be diet changes as to why they now consume more food then they ever did before, or why they may be more irritable or angry, or even sad. These behavior changes can be the result of something more then an individual issue. We know that hypnosis changes behavior, and we have laws that regulate hypnosis. A Military type hypnosis is like an inner struggle, described in a Holy War. We have 22 Veterans commit suicide every day, which is un acceptable. We need our Jr Members with Clergy that understand the dynamics of these issues, and can deal with them. The mind is what we mentor, and one of the current battlefields is within the mind. How can we have psychological war fare and suggest our troops are mentally ill? I thought they are the Best our Nation has?
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Lt Col (Join to see)
Interesting comment. How do we go about educationing them in Mind Sciences? It is more than cognitive ability development, and we devote (and probably don't have a tremendous amount of time to initially do much else) most of our time to getting that 3-level out the door and on the way to a 5-level. How do we in your view better incorporate this sensibility into the profession of arms?
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TSgt Keith Wright
I agree it’s a very difficult issue. Mind Sciences can be something of a periphial subject, like short 5 minute video clips produced and shown on the Military TV network, or at AFEES restraunt areas, or while waiting in lines at different agencies for pay, travel, hospital appointments. Short video clips that capture the attention and convey a meaningful message. Mind sciences can be described in many different aspects and broken down into easy terms for the layperson.
For instance the DC Shooter was complaining about “Microwave Transmissions” and a type of “Telepathy”. What we should know is that “Microwave Transmissions” is from a comic book from the early 60’s. The same with “Psychotronic weapons” which is another comic book from the 60’s. The same is listed under a mock web site made to look official describing Civil Defense weapons and is supposed to be listed under HR 2977 Authored by Sen. Kucinich. However the information is bogus, Sen. Kucinich never wrote any such HR 2977 and HR 2977 has nothing to do with Civil Defense weapons. Which should give us a clue that someone wrote these items and used an old comic book to “Guide” or “Inspire” people to this information, threw some kind of clairvoyant way. These videos should describe what “clairvoyant” means and what is Telepathy, is it the same as telepathy? The videos should describe what causes telepathy, is it religion? Is it a Born less ritual? What are these things and compare these findings with mental health explanations? If our young people understand what is hitting them psychologically then they have a much better chance at recovering their life before they loose it. The other thing is whoever is a comic book fan and has a fascination with civil defense items is screwing with our Airmen, Soldiers, and Marines.
Short Video clips on Hypnosis and why some states developed laws that regulate hypnosis, what is hypnosis, how does it work etc. Is it possible to encourage suicide threw hypnosis? Why and how does hypnosis change behavior? Maybe if this question is posed to a large group maybe someone can come up with a better answer?
Thank you, Keith.
For instance the DC Shooter was complaining about “Microwave Transmissions” and a type of “Telepathy”. What we should know is that “Microwave Transmissions” is from a comic book from the early 60’s. The same with “Psychotronic weapons” which is another comic book from the 60’s. The same is listed under a mock web site made to look official describing Civil Defense weapons and is supposed to be listed under HR 2977 Authored by Sen. Kucinich. However the information is bogus, Sen. Kucinich never wrote any such HR 2977 and HR 2977 has nothing to do with Civil Defense weapons. Which should give us a clue that someone wrote these items and used an old comic book to “Guide” or “Inspire” people to this information, threw some kind of clairvoyant way. These videos should describe what “clairvoyant” means and what is Telepathy, is it the same as telepathy? The videos should describe what causes telepathy, is it religion? Is it a Born less ritual? What are these things and compare these findings with mental health explanations? If our young people understand what is hitting them psychologically then they have a much better chance at recovering their life before they loose it. The other thing is whoever is a comic book fan and has a fascination with civil defense items is screwing with our Airmen, Soldiers, and Marines.
Short Video clips on Hypnosis and why some states developed laws that regulate hypnosis, what is hypnosis, how does it work etc. Is it possible to encourage suicide threw hypnosis? Why and how does hypnosis change behavior? Maybe if this question is posed to a large group maybe someone can come up with a better answer?
Thank you, Keith.
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Lt Col (Join to see) -- Sir, great thread here. I would like to take a less common angle in my response, though I agree with much of what people have said here already. I'd like to point out that it is also important for the junior personnel to be proactive with pursuing mentorship. For example, you are a senior officer, and you have several junior officers under your command one way or another. You are also super busy, and even if you deliberately carve out time to mentor your junior officers, how are you supposed to know who REALLY WANTS that mentorship? Now, if 1 of those junior officers came to you and said ,"Sir, I'd like to get on your calendar and talk about my career progression, specifically topics X, Y, and Z and the options I have" -- then the whole interaction becomes much more efficient. As a senior officer yourself, your whole command under you can't fairly expect for you to be a mind reader with infinite time for mentorship. Just making the point.
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Lt Col (Join to see)
Good point. As your become more senior, you do need to balance every responsibility you are assigned. True, you do become busy, but we need to become proactive from both perspectives. Sheer numbers dictate that the effort is unequal towards any one individual, so making sure that there is an environment where a junior enlisted or officer can respectfully engage with senior leadership is key. I honestly try to be approachable and engage in conversation outside of what our jobs require us to do. It has made for memorable exchanges for the majority of folks I've had the privilege of serving with, and I hope I've presented some of the qualities of what a good officer should be. Thanks for your response!
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Mentor/junior personnel is a very fine line. I have seen mentors act as if they have nothing to learn from new ideas junior personnel have to offer, instead of hearing out the ideas and pulling from their experience to discuss from experience rather than just disregard. I have also seen junior personnel move forward with shock and awe ideas, not pausing to think a mentor might be able to offer an opinion or a path less resistant.
For me it is all about being open to what ANY person has to say and being willing to explore new ideas while keeping within the rules and regulations on both sides of the relationship. I truly believe I have more to learn from every person I meet than I will ever know.
For me it is all about being open to what ANY person has to say and being willing to explore new ideas while keeping within the rules and regulations on both sides of the relationship. I truly believe I have more to learn from every person I meet than I will ever know.
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I would suggest opening the line of communications, give guidance from your experience, be more than I am your boss and work for me, become the deep fighter, conduct OPDs for significant changes, and don't make them to fearful of telling the truth.
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Maybe it was the unit I was in supporting an MOS school, but mentoring just didnt happen, everything was reactionary, someone does something wrong, they get hammered otherwise it was business as usual, I struggled trying to understand what was wanted of me beyond generalities and there was a lot of contradiction between company level command and section level, there was a lot of contradictory information in general. While it was nice being in a unit that worked mon-friday 8-4, at times i wished i had been in a more organized place. sorry for rambling.
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You really need to connect with your juniors on a personal level. When you do this they really start listening and paying attention. They finally feel like you give a crap about them and their career. Once you are connecting with on a personal level you finally see what their goals truly are and the root of their struggles. Once you know this you can really tailor how you mentor that certain member.
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Getting to know your troops and mentoring often times go hand in hand. I genuinely cared for the Airmen that worked for me, personally and professionally. One easy way I did this when I was at Spangdahlem was that I went to lunch with several NCOs every week at the German Kantine on base. It was pretty much an open invite and a standing appointment and it was a great way to just find out what was going on with them, their troops, and often times, the flight itself. It was a good time to hear what could be improved and to pass down info on what was going on with the unit and some things that needed to be fixed. Organized mentoring sessions didn't seem to work for my Airmen but an open door policy did, even if it was just to shoot the breeze sometimes. I think often times, leaders keep things too formal and stuffy and don't let their troops get comfortable enough to seek advice.
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Just as every person is different. Every method for teaching someone on how to be a Mentor will be different. It will work best if the method suits the individual being mentored. This is where the Mentor must have good working knowledge of the person they are taking in under their wing. While it will have a flair that is unique to the Mentor, I really do feel it needs to be tailored to the individual being mentored.
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We would have better leaders if we didn't involuntary separate them. Instead we are left with more managers than leaders. "PEOPLE are our greatest asset", its written in our PDG. The disconnection starts there. I've seen to many great mentors leave, and not by choice.
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