I originally didn’t want to write about this topic as I wasn’t sure it made sense for the brand that I’m building. I reconsidered when I thought about how turbulent my first few years in my career were from not having a great mentor. Now that I’m over a decade in, I figured I’d share what I’ve learned from being a mentor to dozens of students.
A great mentor is rare
There’s a lot more to being a great teacher than just showing up every day. I believe the teacher’s that are only concerned about punching out at the end of the day are the reason for the adage, “Those who can’t do teach.” There needs to be a passion to teach, and grow along with your students, even if it’s outside of the designated subject.
Prepare for forever
Once a mentor, always a mentor. Long after my students and I have gone our separate ways, w This can be on topics such as How to Have a Better Day. Or, maybe they notice that their student seems less interested in taking care of themselves, so they shamelessly plug Self-care: A skill you need to learn.😁
Disect and Reassemble
The ability to not just reiterate, but fully understand the content of a textbook is huge! Not only does this allow you to get creative in the implementations of the subject (for me it’s programming), but in the explanations as well!
The ability to rephrase
Just because something makes sense to me, doesn’t mean it also makes sense to the person that I’m trying to communicate the information to. For example, if I wanted to explain to a new developer what HTML is, I’m not likely to have much success if I say “It stands for HyperText Markup Language and is the ability to control everything you see on the internet. All the way from the color to the font, to some images.” In fact, I’m willing to bet that I probably bored you there as well.
It’s been much more beneficial for me in the past to relate it to legos and how working with an HTML block is like creating a lego block and stacking it with other legos.
A great mentor knows they don’t have all the answers
Finally, one of the most important keys that I’ve learned is that I don’t have all of the answers, and that’s okay. Attempting to make up an answer or failing to give a correct answer is a lot more harmful than simply saying “I don’t know, but I can find out”. Best case scenario, my student will continue their eductation with an incorrect foundational block. Worst case scenario, they lose trust and respect for me.
Let’s recap
It wasn’t explicitly stated yet, but a huge part of a mentor and mentoree relationship is based on respect. Without respect, there’s a lack of desire to listen to one another and fully understand the messages that are being communicated. In addition, it’s important to:
- Prepare to always be a mentor, because the “job” extends far out from the normal topic
- Be able to disect and reassemble the information so that you increase your knowledge, as well as you’re able to take multiple approaches in teaching the lesson
- Understand that not knowing everything is okay
People who are willing to teach and listen are the only reason civilization is able to advance. Without it, we’re constantly reinventing the wheel. This is why developing keys to being a great mentor is important.
