Adventures in Mentoring

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”
― Phil Collins

One of my favorite activities that I've started this year is actively mentoring others.  At the present, I'm mentoring a young college student, a non-traditional (older) college student, and one of my best friends, a post-graduate mid-level career woman.  By "actively mentoring," I mean that I set aside time twice a month to meet with them and guide them.

My favorite lesson so far is that I have learned so much from mentoring them.  They are all different from me; different experiences and in different stages of their life.  They have different degrees and grew up in different areas.  They have reminded me of different life experiences that I've had that I can weave into my stories and lessons.  They have challenged me to grow.  They have required that I learn more by researching, asking questions, and coming up with new solutions to problems.  They remind me that the line between mentor and mentee is quite blurred sometimes, and that we all step back and forth over that line often in a good mentoring relationship.

 

http://mentorguru.info/getting-the-most-out-of-mentoring/

The young college student is a new mentee.  I've met with her once so far, but she is the one who, at the moment, wants to pursue entrepreneurship.  She wants to learn about how to succeed and how to fail and how to start your first business and how that is different from your fifth business.  She wants to flexibility and freedom that she thinks entrepreneurship offers, and she knows she can change the world.  And I believe that she's right.

The non-traditional student is about 5 years younger than I.  She hasn't started her career, and realized that she doesn't want to pursue a job in her field of study.  She's the level of creative that I only have in my dreams.  In our second meeting, we talked for hours about passions and where she sees herself.  Like me, she's a more recent transplant in the area and is looking for opportunities to integrate into the community.  She has a level of excitement that is contagious and breathes new life into my sometimes jaded personality.

And last, but not least, my most  recent meeting happened this morning with a friend who reached out to me for training in a specific area: social media.  She recently had some career transition and thought that I could teach her things that could apply in business as well as her personal life.  We've been friends for over a year and recently became each others plus one to community events.  I was more than happy to help her with what she wanted to learn.  6 hours later, we covered so much more than social media.

Last year, I wouldn't have thought I could mentor others.  I spoke at the local college once last year and that was the extent of my teaching moments.  This year, I lead a 3rd grade Destination Imagination team to state competition.  I spoke to 2 classes.  I was asked to be a keynote speaker at the state DECA conference.   I received my first intern.  I sought out opportunities to share my knowledge - not because I thought I knew everything, but because I knew that in teaching, I would learn.  If I needed to know something, I would research it until I was comfortable with the content.  If I was presenting a new topic, I prepared my presentation.  I re-read Dale Carnegie books.  I brushed up on my PowerPoint skills.

Every day, I'm honing my skills.  Every day, I'm looking for ways reach more audiences and help more people, help more businesses.  These skills that I work on in my free time with my mentees help me to boost my abilities with my clients.  Mentoring has given me the confidence to write and develop seminars and workshops.  It has given me the confidence to speak to more classes and do more training.

Phil Collins was right - I am both teaching and learning.  I am always on the look out for new opportunities to do both.  And I believe that everyone should look for these opportunities because I still have a lot to learn from them.

Nicole
The Restless Entrepreneur