The Mentor Calibration: What Kind of Mentor are You?

According to Wikipedia, Mentors are tracked back to Greek mythology. Mentor, son of Alcumus, had a near-paternal relationship with one of his friends’ sons. The result, the personal name Mentor has been adopted in English as a term meaning a father-like teacher. This begs the question, “if mentors have been around that long, shouldn’t we have mastered skills necessary to be excellent career solution providers?”

Have you thought about the impact a mentor can have on your career? Is there such a thing as right and wrong mentors? Lastly, have you rated your own mentoring capabilities?

Having the good fortune to have had several mentors over the years, I decided to line them up and calibrate them against each other. What I found was eye-opening. I also tried to normalize the mentors from when I was the deadly combination of inexperienced and eager against those when I was further up the corporate ladder and the competition was smaller, but fiercer. The non-scientific Mentor Study Results fell into two clearly divided categories, Good and Great.

Good Mentors are:

1. The unbiased neutral party that helps you assess and understand situations objectively, especially when your ambition exceeds your experience
2. The sage council when you encounter a situation in which you’ve never seen before, like the first time you must terminate an employee
3. The guide through the unchartered territory of unwritten rules, often referred to as office politics
4. The sounding board in preparing you to act on your own behalf, by assisting in the development and delivery of important presentations
5. The backstop when you just want to know that someone, other than you mom, has your back

Great Mentors are:

1. The champion, actively supporting you with nothing to gain for themselves other than the satisfaction of removing road blocks for you
2. The power broker that creates options for you that you didn’t even know existed, as they are in the know
3. The rainmaker that creates your visibility opportunities, because people have to know you to request your contribution
4. The director that orchestrates risk taking strategies for getting you where you want to go, ensuring that the risk does not outweigh the reward
5. The investor who takes accountability for your guaranteed success, yielding positive returns

What separates a good mentor from a great mentor is advocacy. That is a person who uses their influence to not only support you, but advance your career. Several skills that separate a good mentor from a great mentor are: Self Confidence, Open Mindedness, Takes Chances, and Accepts Risk.

Take a moment and assess your mentor, as well as yourself. Where do you land?