105: How to Find a Mentor

Coaching for Leaders

Dave Stachowiak

Careers, Business, Management

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2013

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Greek mythology, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus and was placed in charge of his son Telemachus when Odysseus left for war.

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary calls a mentor, “A trusted counselor or guide.”

What do you want to get from mentoring?

Probably what you aren’t good at (or at least not yet)
Plus, it’s something that’s important for you to get better at

Advance planning

Who do you know who’s good at that?
Are there multiple people?
You don’t have to know them today
Your greatest mentors will never expect anything
Identify specifically how someone can help and begin there
Make a mind map of the people who could help
Create a board of directors

Getting Started

Start off with a specific question
Know that not everyone will respond or won’t be willing to help
Wait on asking someone to “be a mentor”
- Everyone has a different context for this
- It could seem like a huge commitment
- It’s awkward if they don’t want to make that committment

Find a way to connect regularly

This is where proximity and formal programs can help
Make a point to connect regularly
It’s great to be influenced by those that you don’t speak with regularly, but find people you will see

Be willing to ask for help

Get out of the “asking for help is a weakness” mentality

What’s something in front of you right now that a new perspective would be helpful with? My challenge to you is to go out and identify a person and approach them with a specific question and ask advice. Remember, you don’t have to take the advice. If they don’t respond, identify a second person.

Past shows that might also be helpful to you on the topic of mentoring:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you ever feel like asking someone to be your mentor is like asking a person out on a date?
0:06.1	On this episode, how to find a mentor without it being weird.
0:10.7	This is coaching for Leaders, episode 105.
0:14.0	Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.
0:20.0	Greetings from Orange County, California. This is coaching for leaders and I'm your host, Dave Stahoviac.
0:30.0	This is a weekly coaching show to help people be better leaders through improved communications, human relations, and personal productivity.
0:40.0	And if you're joining me for the first time, welcome. This is a show for people who care about others,
0:47.0	leading others effectively, and oh by the way, leading ourselves well too, which is where good leadership always starts and in
0:55.4	today's episode I'm excited to be able to talk with you about the topic of
0:59.4	mentorship that we've talked about on this show before but we haven't talked about how to find a mentor.
1:05.0	And when I think about the topic of mentoring, it reminds me of a lot of stories, and one kind of funny one that happened to me, I't know six or seven years ago is for many
1:14.3	many years I had taught classes at a client location for Dale Carnegie and every
1:22.1	time I would go into this particular building or
1:24.6	particular location I would set up the room in such a way that I felt it was
1:30.2	most beneficial to teach a Dale Carnegie course.
1:32.8	And so I would walk in and I would take down all the tables.
1:37.0	I would take down all the chairs.
1:38.2	I would move the entire furniture in the room all to one side.
1:40.6	I move it to the back of the room.
1:41.6	And then I'd reset up the entire room the way that I thought
1:44.6	it was going to be most effective to run that class and for people to get the best
1:49.7	possible experience from it and I had done that literally for, I don't know, two or three years, always that way.
	...

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