Find a mentor, Be a mentor

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?

David Bolton@lightningdb

http://davidbolton.net