In many career settings,our judgement and learning are calibrated by working alongside a more experienced partner. Having someone on hand that’s happy to share niche-specific advice, offer corrective feedback and act as a sounding board for your thoughts and ideas is an acutely valuable resource and crucial to continued growth and development. Mentors of this type are not neccesarily the complete expert, but they’ve walked the road you’re embarking upon and are happy to share their often hard-won experience. They support and encourage their mentees by helping them develop in confidence, by expanding their belief in their abilities and crucially, by helping develop a practical range of leadership skills.

Typically, a mentor has been in an organisation or profession longer and carries greater practical experience than does a mentee. We say typically because “reverse mentoring” can, and often does flip this model and prove highly beneficial (reverse mentoring occurs when a mentee shares niche-specific cross-generational knowledge with their mentor). In fact it’s quite a common experience for most mentors to find themselves being mentored by their own mentee! And why not? In many instances, the relationship ends up mutually developmental for mentor and mentee alike.

But do we really need a mentor? Can’t we just ascend our career ladders alone? You could, but it’s a terrible idea. And in any event, why would you want to? Success writes it’s own roadmap in it’s own way. Our “Working With Mentor Model” (as the name implies) focuses upon rolling up our sleeves and actually “Working With” our people in the field. Virtually every leader I’ve ever met benefited hugely from the helpful souls who worked with them patiently, diligently and compassionately as they found their feet and advanced their professional standing over time. I know I did and I’m certainly no exception. I’ve been very fortunate to have connected with a series of life-altering mentors who, strangely enough, all seemed to appear at critical moments in my career, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. When I reflect on those relationships they feel almost unintentional in nature. Happy accidents, one could say, that served me so well.

When I think back on my “accidental mentors” one common theme stands out. They all saw potential in me that I couldn’t necessarily see in myself at the time. These amazing people, who, by their own estimation, were by no means perfect, were hugely influential in helping me see, and advance toward my natural next step when my own murky vision of the future could easily have prevented me from believing such a step was possible. The light they shone upon me and my next appropriate step was instrumental to my growth into a leadership role. And while I hope everyone enjoys “happy accidents” like these along the way, mentorship is just too damn important to be left to chance.

As leaders (or emerging leaders), we carry both the duty and the privilege to pay it forward. To invest our time and resources in the next generation of emerging leaders by passing along the knowledge and expertise we’ve accumulated over the course of our careers. It’s about helping our emerging leaders model best practise and avoid the avoidable mistakes as we walk with them as comrades in arms, toward the fulfilment of their potential and the achievement of their most fondly held dreams and ambitions. Therein lies the Genesis of our “Working With Mentor Model”.

Phil Col-Cluff