Mentoring is when someone with experience take on someone, usually younger, to help build their career or build towards a goal. This is someone giving advice and guidance to someone that they want to succeed. A mentor understands the progress, the possibilities and the problems that can occur while trying to build a successful career. It is not to build the mentee in their own mirage, but for them to find themselves and to find their footing. These leaders are able to see where their mentees are lacking and build to where we can no longer have these weaknesses. This constructive criticism is not hurt or demean the mentee but for them to see what they have before. The bigger picture and how to paint it.
Mentor are always ready to challenge; therefore, they are ready to promote personal and professional growth. They watch this growth with watchful eyes and without help. They will allow the individual to make mistakes and run into problems with the thought of helping if there is absolutely no way for them to get out of it. When said individual think they can do nothing else, the mentor gives them the idea that solves the problems, and with that the lesson is learned. When those type of problems pop up, the mentor can be that ear you can express to as they have been in that situation. The tough love will address the distance and off handedness that the mentees will face with others in the world. Mentors gives a new perspective that someone may need to adopt or help improving much needed skills. They can also put you in touch with professionals that can help you to the next step and closer to being successful.
I do not have the luxury of having a mentor. I could ask someone to become my mentor, it would be our very own Dr. Tammy Prater. I have a deep respect for Dr. Prater both inside and outside the classroom. She has a personality that is similar to mine and I find her easy to understand, with and without any metaphors. She has accomplished many things, most I may want to dabble in myself. She graduated from University of Alabama, a school that I would like to go to and she attended the program that I wish to be in. Fortunately, she passed her PMP and I would like to sit to take the CapM test. It lines up that she would be my mentor as she knows exactly how to go about leading me through the rest of my school and maybe through my career. The information and knowledge that she has can be very beneficial to me in a multitude of ways.
