Mentorship: Sailing to Success

Mentorship is a means to sail to personal and professional success.

Mentorship is not one ship, but a fleet of ships, all headed in the same direction. Each ship is a powerful tool alone, but collectively, Mentorship is what I refer to as the:

The Leader Development Armada

Armada is a fleet of warships, which makes it a powerful force to reckon with, and so is mentorship. What are the other ships that compose this mighty armada?

Internal Ships

Internal ships are the communication skills used daily.

• Relationship. Voluntary, developmental, sharing experiences, mutual trust, and respect. These are the foundational qualities in mentoring and relationships. Can you embrace these principles, or are they foreign concepts?

• Leadership. Embracing the principles of change for future growth. If you are not looking to change, then you are not looking to lead, be led, mentor, or be mentored.

• Followership. Knowing when and how to be led. Successful leaders also learn from followers, and the same is true in the mentor/mentee relationship. Good mentors know when to step back and follow the lead of the mentee. Can you follow leaders or only lead followers?

Because the world is diverse, we cannot rely solely on internal communications to see us through.

External Ships

External ships require us to leave our comfort zone and pursue ships that sail in different realms.

• Partnership. Equal devotion to the success of the relationship and each other. This means the willingness to share experiences openly, honestly, and safely to help the relationship progress.

• Scholarship. Education places experience into context. Mentoring is where education starts, for both the mentor and mentee, in learning about each other, the relationship, and the process. What have you learned during your mentorship experience?
• Observer-ship. Sometimes we see, but do not observe. Both mentor and mentee need to observe to see if the relationship is working. Too often, we become task-oriented versus success-oriented. The result? Failure seemed sudden, but the handwriting was on the wall.

As written earlier, the mentorships sail together to form a powerful fleet. This fleet is what powers mentorship and your career.

Is your career Sailing to Success on the Mentorship, or has it stalled on the Comfort Cruise?

#mentoring #mentorship #relationships #leadership #partnership #self-development

Although an Army alumnus, Dr. Burl Randolph, Jr, DM continues to sail to success on the USS Mentorship. He is the main mentor at MyWingman, LLC, a Business Leadership and Management Consulting company in Davenport, Iowa, Inspiring Legacies That Last. ©2015.