Mentor Search

Sitting in the Australian Bakery on the Marietta Square, Richard Samuel and I talked about accountability and mentors over hot tea on a cool fall day. I met Richard on a mission trip to India in 1999; he is one of the people that I really do respect and trust. And, a man that is able to go deep with opportunities and issues.

He asked a question that can be difficult to answer. “Who can you talk to?” In other words, do I have a mentor? Do I have a trusted group of advisors and counselors that I can seek for guidance and assistance? Or, am I, like so many others in this world, alone?

My answer is complex because fortunately, I do have a trusted group of advisors and counselors. I don’t know if they even know it, but there are a few men that I will turn to for discussion on any subject matter, whether my faith, my work, or my family. They are men with whom I can be open and honest. They provide challenge and wisdom. Although that network is mostly informal, it is vital to my survival.

With the departure of a trusted mentor, I am now in need of a mentor. The search will not be easy. Here are some qualifications:

1. Cannot be a family member (possible conflict of interest)
2. Cannot be in the direct line above me in the org chart work (honesty may be negatively rewarded)
3. Christian
4. A Father
5. Candid
6. Successful in business
7. Local

Now, I begin the process of praying and seeking a mentor so that we can provide mutual personal commitment to the investment, development and empowerment of each of us.

The difficulty is that I must be able to trust this person. So many in authority in my life have washed up as failures or frauds and caused me to walk away, preferring to be alone than to fall in line under their tutelage. Included are church leaders, business leaders, and respected friends. But, the reward far outweighs the risk. I repeat, the learning curve is severely shortened through the mentoring relationship.

I am seeking, are you?

Comments

[Ed Brenegar]

A thought or two about finding a mentor ... It is like searching for a new CEO of a business or a pastor of a church. The person you want isn't searching to be a mentor. He is already one. What I mean is that you have to recruit this person. The qualifications that you list above are a good place to begin excluding potential candidates. The deeper question is what do you need to learn, and who out there is best able to help you learn it.
Second thought ... based on what you have written, my guess is that you are going to a new stage of growth. Several years ago I heard a presentation by a HR person from Saturn. She talked about ascending S-curves. Visualize this ... the first curve begins moving up and to the right, gradually increasing in steepness until it begins to level off and then drop off. There is the first S-curve. Her point is that we need to be able to identify when growth begins to plateau, and it is at that point we look to change how we are working. There is a saying that gets passed around, "Stupidity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results." So, it may well be that what you are looking for is not what you had with Bas, but someone else. And that person isn't looking to be your mentor but is willing to become yours by your invitation. This fall I assisted a client in the search for a new CEO. I asked a colleague who is in the executive search business how we should approach it. She told me, you advertise the job, and you'll get 500 resumes and none are right. You have to recruit the person you want. She was right. They recruited a young man from right here in town. Everyone seems to be pleased.
Happy hunting.