“I never thought of it that way,” said Julia. Her face showed a new brightness. “You mean you can really do that?”
For the past few minutes we had been talking about an open position in another department in her company. Julia had her eye on it. It would be a big step for her.
“So, have you applied for it? You know the manager that held that position before he got promoted. You sat across the table from him in many meetings.” I prodded.
“I really don’t know if I would be qualified. I don’t know where to start.”
“Look, Julia, most of us don’t know where to start. So, try here. Ask that manager if he would be your mentor for his old position. Start with an email or coffee in the company break room.”
Julia was resisting. “Why would anyone stop their busy day to help me learn?” The words were no sooner out of her mouth when she realized how absurd it sounded.
“Julia, people love to talk about how they successfully built their department and achieved their goals. You will be absolutely amazed, if you would just ask.” -TF
I love this post! There’s a book called “The Inner Game of Tennis,” and much like “It’s Not About The Bike,” by Lance Armstrong, it’s not about the game of tennis. In the book, the tennis instructor realizes that when he teaches with words, his students seem to fail in the very areas they set their focus on. What he discovers is that his students learn best by watching and immitating his moves. He takes a brand new student, a woman who has never even held a racket, and asks her to watch him hit the ball. He goes through the motions, demonstrating proper footing and stroke of his racket. He repeats his demonstration several times as his student watches. Then he asks her to try. She performs the act gracefully and unlike a new student. She struggles slightly with her footing, but mirrors the instructors smooth stroke, hitting the ball like an experienced player. When the student completes her attempt to recreate her instructor’s moves, the instructor asks her, “What did you concentrate on when you watched me? What were you most aware of?” She replies, “Your footing.” Ironically, it is the only thing that she struggles with.
Good mentoring is modeling. We can all learn by watching strong leaders and finding the traits that we can successfully apply to our own repertoire.