Mentoring: A Momentum Maker
When you are ‘In the Zone’, you know it. Business is booming, promotions are plentiful, and when you speak, E.F. Hutton listens. Everything works right, feels right, goes right, and is right. Then, it happens: Nothing. The product, project, or profession starts to stall, stagnate, or stop. Soon, you have a Maxwell Moment and you realize: I lost my Mighty Mo. Austin Powers spoke about losing his MoJo, and Marshall Goldsmith wrote about getting it back. B.B. King sang about working his Mojo, but the Mighty Mo is Momentum, and you know when you’ve lost it. The question is: How do I get my Mighty Mo back? Mentoring may provide the answer.
Just ask Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, who has spoken profusely on the need for a mentor at every level in his military career (My American Journey, 1995). Or how about Academy Award Winner Denzel Washington in his first book, A Hand to Guide Me (2006), which outlined the mentoring stories of 70 notable figures in American life. Mentoring not only makes the difference, it may just make the means for recreating your momentum.
Mentoring is most often described as a developmental relationship where someone with greater experience shares those experiences with someone of lesser experience, based on mutual respect and trust. This means that the need for a mentor may occur at any time or at any level in a person’s life or career. When you lose your momentum, a mentor does not just magically appear, but must be sought. There are four characteristics I look for when searching for a mentor, especially to help get my momentum back:
1. A leader I revere. A revered leader and a leader you revere are not the same thing. For me, a leader I revere must be someone that I know or have observed either personally or professionally. Because mentoring is a relationship, who works well with one person may not work well with me, so I need someone who I personally respect, admire, and connect with.
2. Openly shares experiences. Look for someone that is willing to be an open book when it comes to your development. I look for someone who has codified their lessons learned, is green and growing versus whining and wilting, and will share vulnerable experiences. Just telling me what to read or what to do is not a mentor, that’s a boss.
3. Someone I can Trust. In a mentoring relationship, sometimes things are shared that would be embarrassing if known in public. Some information is even traumatic when telling it to someone. A mentor must bear all of those intimacies, and lock them away for safe keeping, to help develop the mentee.
4. Finessed Feedback. Finessed feedback is tactful, diplomatic, constructive feedback that builds you up, not tears you down. If you have already lost your momentum, you want help regaining it, not digging a deeper hole.
When you have lost your momentum for whatever reason, consider seeking a mentor. Teaching may tell you a tale that you have already learned. Coaching may attempt to cultivate competencies already completed. Mentoring however, may be a momentum maker that gets you back on track.
Have you sought a mentor in the past, or taken on the role yourself? Please share your own experience below!
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