Archive for October 2013

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Mentors: Who needs them?

Mentors play a crucial role in the life of a professional however, am I the only one who has been greatly underwhelmed with professional mentorship programs? My experience with them is that companies have them because they look good on paper and it is the right thing to do, however the execution and follow through is abysmal. The idea that you can pick a set of names from a hat, pair them together (or in some cases assign groups of mentees to one mentor) and just expect that it will all work out for the good of the mentee is gallant, but it is an approach that is designed to fail the masses.

Don't get me wrong I do believe in mentorship, however I think that a lot of thought and evaluation has to go into the relationship. In my book, HOW TO MAKE IT FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE CUBICLE, I have tackled this relationship and broke them down into the following categories:

One who has vested interest – This is someone who is helping you but will benefit from your success. So they may be conflicted into only giving you positive advice.

One who has no direct benefit – This is someone who is hard to find. They will give you honest feedback even if you won’t like it.

A sponsor – Someone who just likes you for you. They spend time building a relationship and sometimes goes beyond the call of duty to assist you. These relationships tend to span various stages of your professional life.

I subscribe to the ideal that there is somebody in your extended professional and academic network who has a characteristic or some experience that you can benefit from. Why is this important? Because if they encountered and overcame a similar set of challenges to what you are or will be facing, it will do you a world of good to learn from their mistakes and choices. Whether formally or informally you can engage them to understand their approach to determine whether or not you can adopt any of their philosophies to make your way easier. One lesson I can share is that it is hard to find one single person who encapsulates everything that you are looking for and in some instances you may need a few mentors who can advise you in various aspects. Additionally, some mentors are only for a certain stage: they may be very useful for a few years, but the advice that we get should evolve as we evolve as professionals. This could result in you having to move on.

There are many styles of mentee/mentor relationships, each having its own set of dynamics. You need to find what works best for you. That said we must understand that irrespective the mentor or group of mentors you will have throughout the course of your professional life, you have to be the owner of every decision that you make. A mentor’s intentions may be genuine but you have to live with the consequences, whether good or bad. I encapsulated how I feel about this in a quote in my book: you can take advice from anyone, but you should always make the final decision.

Until next time remember, As long as you have life, you should live it to your fullest potential.

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Time waits for no one

I woke up last Saturday morning pondering on the whirlwind week I had and wondered how quickly time went by: by the time this weekend is over I travelled about 7500 miles by air and road combined. I thought about the fact that it was already October and that the year was coming to a close, this is when the idea for today’s blog, “Time waits for no one”, came to mind.

For my friends who are in university, you may be thinking the same thing that came to my mind when I thought of this topic. The fact that as a student there are different courses and social activities grabbing for your attention and you always seem to be playing catch up. For others it is procrastination; putting off what you can do today, until tomorrow. The problem with that approach is that tomorrow, something else pops up with the same or higher priority, which is then added to the list. Before you realize, the list compounds and you are faced with multiple due dates and little or no time to get things done.

It is out of this today’s advice is borne:

Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do for today.

It is an important ideal that transcends all aspects of life, but particularly in school, there is a greater context that needs to be focused on.

Making proper use of your time is also extremely important when thinking about building a career. Allow me to explain. What you do today has a direct bearing on what you will achieve years from now. How many times have you said to yourself, “This year I will apply to university or graduate school”? Or, “I am going to get that certification that will make me more marketable employee”? Or, “I am going to look for a new job”. Maybe it has been applying for that manager role that you keep psyching yourself out of going after.

With goals that have a longer term, like those mentioned above, it does not seem that big of a deal to defer a task to the next week or month at that actual moment, however as time goes by you find yourself with a decreasing desire to take action. As a result you would have to make double the effort to do what would have been much easier had you done so earlier. I myself have been guilty of such offences. I recall when I was writing my book, HOW TO MAKE IT FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE CUBICLE, there were many stops and starts and with every restart it seemed harder than the time before. However, at one stage when I was not content with the progress that I had made, I challenged myself to finish. From that point onward, I became super focused and structured all my free time to get the job done. For those of you who have read the book can attest to the pride that I feel knowing that I am now an author.

As you read this blog today, think about goals that you have set years ago and that for some reason got de-prioritized because you deferred and deferred until you lost any desire to revive. Today is a good day to start a fresh and to make a concerted effort to finish. Do not be like the many, who due to their idleness ended up missing out on crucial opportunities to advance their personal and professional lives. Take up the challenge today, I guarantee it, you will be happy you did.

Until next time remember: As long as you have life, you should live it to your fullest potential.