Business Etiquette Author and Speaker comments on Mentoring: Passing the Torch of Success

Make Your Best Impression Blog, Uncategorized   ·   December 28, 2009

It is a great feeling to achieve your goals. You plan and work hard until success is assured. What now? It is time to pass on your philosophy for success to another person or group of people who needs help with personal development.

Whenever you begin goal setting for your life, it can be a scary thing. You might not know where to start or even how to define what you really want to accomplish. Mentors are quite helpful in that way. They have been there and can help you avoid some of the same pitfalls they experienced on their way to setting personal bests.

As a mentor, you will inspire others to do their best and not to give up on their dreams. You’ll be surprised to know that it is not the major obstacles that stop your goals but a series of smaller ones that chip away at your resolve. Over time, they make you weaker instead of pushing you forward towards your goal.

Succeeding at mentoring can be another goal for you to achieve. To mentor another on personal achievement, here are some tips.

1. Establish the boundaries of your relationship. A mentor can be a friend but they are first and foremost, a teacher. If you want to keep the relationship on a professional level, send that message at the beginning. It seems easier to take criticism from a teacher than a friend.

1. Set your expectations. Mentoring is challenging work. Let your mentee know what you expect them to be able to do as a result of your mentoring process. If your expectations are the same, you can work together. If they are not, you’ll know before you get too far into the process.

1. Offer feedback to your mentees. Everyone wants to know what type of progress they are making. On a regular basis, discuss your impressions of how the mentoring is going. Give positive complements when they are due so that the mentee is not just hearing about their mistakes and what they need to work on.

1. Track their progress. Are things going smoothly or is there a problem? Make time to discuss any difficulties the mentee is having and solutions for solving them. Maybe a lack of a thorough plan is keeping them from finding success. You will teach them to flesh out their goal plan a bit more to account for more variables.

1. Share some of your setbacks. Let them know about your road to success when appropriate. Mentors are human too and showing that human side helps your mentee to identify with you more. It could be that the same issue that hindered your success is also hindering theirs.

Do you have a method for achieving goals that you’ve developed over the years? Pass this information on to someone else who wants personal goal success to be a part of their life.