In Leadership: Mentors

We as leaders not only need to be mentors to those under us but most importantly we need to be mentored.  One of the most important things that a leader can have is a mentor.  Somebody that they can get advice from.  We as leaders are setting both ourselves and our people up for failure if we don't have a mentor.  We cannot ever think that we know everything about leadership.  We must always have somebody that can tell us when we're leading people in the wrong or right direction, somebody that has been through more than us and seen more than us.  We don't know it all and never will, and if we have somebody that we can trust that can mentor us we will never go into battle empty handed.

When we don't have a mentor we are so confident in our own wisdom and abilities to lead people that we're saying no matter what we know we're right.  Every situation that you come across will be different.  Not only the good, but also dealing with the bad.  We need somebody that we can go to that can help us with difficult decisions.  We also need someone that we can turn to to figure out if we're doing things correctly.  Having a mentor can also set you up for success, because we usually have mentors that have accomplished something in our career field.

Mentors are especially good when it comes to having to discipline somebody that we lead.  I have never counseled sombody or written somebody up without first seeking advice.  This is important because if we don't we can be disciplining somebody based on an emotional reaction instead of doing it because it's something that needs to be done.  Sometimes advice that we may get we may not ever use for ourselves but pass on to other people.  I've gotten information from people that have mentored me and kept it in an email or put it up and when other people had occasions that the information would help them out I had it available for them and just forwarded it on to them. 

As I said having a mentor is crucial as a leader because they will always give you something that you can pass on to somebody else, whether advice or documents or research materiels or a template that can cut time from writing something up.  If we have a mentor then we can be a mentor to somebody else.  Having a mentor will not only help you but help others as well.