In your opinion, what is the most valuable thing that we can do to promote mentorship?

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 15:02:25 -0500

Mentorship is more than doing the required phone calls, etc. We all have mentors from our past both good and bad. I still call the ones that I consider good for their opinions. Personally, I think that the ability to make mistakes and learn from them was what made me consider them to be a life mentor. I was more worried about disappointing them than I was getting chewed out by them. This made me read, learn and work harder to hit the target.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 5 at 2014 4:05 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 16:05:50 -0500

Ownership = mentorship! Understanding as a leader, whether it's as a TL, or a BN CDR, we have to invest in those below us and around us. If we show them we care about them, show them the love and professionlism within the profession of arms, then they'll want to emulate that. That's the difference between Leaders and Managers.

Response by LTC David S. Chang, ChFC®, CLU® made Feb 5 at 2014 4:13 PM

LTC David S. Chang, ChFC®, CLU® — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 16:13:53 -0500

I honestly think we need to make it mandatory in the sense we create an official program to promote. It could be seen as another program to deal with, but without one that I participated in, i wouldn't be where I am today. I joined a mentorship program as part of an organization and my mentor really opened doors for me.

When there is structure, it helps both the mentor and mentee follow a certain structure, to make sure there is value added, and that is beneficial for both. There was a checklist my mentor had and we went over things I and he didn't event think about since it wasn't on our radar.

Also with a program, it gives opportunities for people who are shy and otherwise not willing to ask for one to get one and help people in a mentorship position to take time to develop others.

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Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 5 at 2014 7:03 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 19:03:41 -0500

Mentorship is a hot topic throughout the Military and I do believe that it is crucial to developing better leaders. However, I don't believe that it can be a mandatory program. A good leader is not always a good mentor. Mentorship takes a level of compatibility between the individuals and an investment of time and effort by the mentor. Not everyone is cut out for this type of activity.

If anyone is interested in REALLY wrapping their brain around this subject, I would suggest reading this article:

http://www.usnwc.edu/getattachment/1d75c515-7093-4bc3-92fa-7284b7198bb4/Formal-Mentoring-in-the-U-S--Military--Research-Ev

Dr. Johnson, professor of psychology at the Naval Academy, has an interesting perspective on mentorship in general and seems highly critical of 'forced' formal mentorship programs.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 15 at 2014 3:26 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 03:26:26 -0500

Sir,
Two things easily said, though not easily done.
1. Trust - Up, down, and across the formation. Not just lip service trust either, leaders and subordinates underwriting honest mistakes of their leaders/subordinates. No one is perfect, we need to stop with the charade that our leaders are infallable.
2. Believe and practice the 360 evals - There is a lot of insight to how we are as leaders if we truly listen to the feedback we get from our subordinates. It may not be what we want to hear, but it is usually what we need to hear.

If we do these two things better, mentorship would definitly increase across formations in my opinion.

Response by TSgt Joshua Copeland made Dec 15 at 2014 11:12 AM

TSgt Joshua Copeland — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 11:12:36 -0500

The single most valuable thing to promote mentorships is an individual, actively SEEK mentors and actively mentor OTHERS. You will find that when you mentor others, they in turn want to mentor.

No AFI, AR, FM, etc will every make an effective mentorship program. It simply creates the framework for someone to go through the motions. The key is you actually have to CARE about the individual, not because you are told to, but because you WANT to.