find a mentor, be a mentor
DESCRIPTION
Things to consider when you are in a technology leadership or management position when it comes to mentoring. What is the sort of mentor that you need? What is the sort of mentor that you may need to be?TRANSCRIPT
Find a mentor, Be a mentor
David Bolton@lightningdb
What is a mentor?
A person who willingly invests their time listening and dispensing advice and ideas for the purpose of helping someone improve themselves and their performance.
What is an apprentice?
A person who willingly asks for, receives, and acts on advice and ideas for the purpose of improving
themselves and their performance.
Competitive Advantage
* Your job is to mentor for the mentored’s competitive advantage
* Your desire as someone being mentored is to increase your own competitive advantage
* Reference: Andy Grove’s High Output Management
Everyone needs perspective
Especially when doing new things!
Times are a changin’
The mentor you need has changed. (The mentor you need to be has not.)
It doesn’t matter if you’ve gone from senior developer to team lead, or team
lead to development manager or development manager to functional manager or department manager,
you’re now rarer than you were before.
Finding a mentorPrevious mentors?
Background?
Number?
Where?
Are they any good?
A boss?
Evaluate a mentor
Evaluate mentors based on the advice they have for a
person that is not you.
Now, the people you are mentoring are usually in a
completely different situation
Be a mentorYour limitations
Your values
Adding value
Discover their pathOutgrowing
Biases
* Watch out!
* Search Google for “Cognitive Bias”
Coaching?
