Friday, December 27, 2013

Oh no – here is one more piece on mentorship!

Plenty of articles have described what a successful mentor/mentee relationship looks like – and there is tons of advice out there if you are interested in the subject matter.  And I agree with a lot of what is being written – nothing wrong so far. For me things worked a bit differently: I never had a mentor – not sure why, it just never happened. But the lack of a single senior focal point for me was the reason why I always tried to find out what makes certain people successful  to see whether it works for me – and that holds at every stage of the career ladder. Some that are new to the job and / or the company and are at the beginning of their career display a level of energy and curiosity that I find not only refreshing but essential for business success. Also, lots can be learned from younger employees about social media and new ways to connect and communicate.
Others that are successful in more senior positions have usually a common set of characteristics but also often something special about them that makes them unique or differentiates them. It takes a bit of time to observe their behavior to understand what makes people successful but it is not rocket science.
And you just need to figure out which of these recipes for success will work for you – pick and choose what you think can help you advance and get closer to the position you would like to hold…or the shop you want to open… or the project you want to lead…to reach your goal you don’t need to reinvent the world – just figure out what successful folks have to say and see if and how this applies to you.
And whilst this has worked for me in the past – also at a time when we did not have Youtube videos and search engines to get the good advice you always wanted but never could get….this has now become even easier. So select a few heroes that you would like to emulate and see what they have to say – many of them give you their advice for free on the net  - so what are you waiting for?

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