Posted on Feb 5, 2014
In your opinion, what is the most valuable thing that we can do to promote mentorship?
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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.
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Mentorship
Posted 10 y ago
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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:
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.
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COL Vincent Stoneking
CPT McCormick,
I am also highly critical of mandatory mentorship programs.
More often than not, they are "yet another block to check", which wastes the mentor's time and is of no value to the mentee.
You hit the nail on the head when you say that not everyone is cut out to be a mentor. Nor, quite frankly, should everyone BE mentored. It really should be those who are seen as having above average potential, if managed. This, of course, is a subjective assessment.
The reserve forces have additional issues, especially if they buy into the "mentor everyone" camp. Quite simply, there are not enough hours in the day. In my unit, I simply would not have the time to mentor all my junior officers, if that were my goal. Instead, I put some general effort into OPD/LPD and mentor the two that I see as having the most potential. Often taking time away from my civilian job to do so.
Same thing on the civilian side. I professionally develop ALL of my directs through a structured program. I mentor two (soon to be three) that I see has having tremendous potential.
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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.
What is the top skill you need to achieve your goals? Read on!
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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.
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