Mentor can be key to personal growth

  • By James McCusker Business 101
  • Tuesday, May 5, 2015 4:51pm
  • Business

In most businesses, successful or struggling, large or small, situations arise where important decisions have to be made. Sometimes these decisions will affect the future of the business, but sometimes they are more of a personal, career building nature.

Whatever the specific nature of the decision, it often creates a demand for good advice.

Over the years, life and literature have provided all sorts of names for the sources of this advice.

Mentor, counselor, adviser, consigliere and rabbi, are a few of the most commonly used terms but there are others as well.

One name is not included, possibly because in most cases no words of advice are actually spoken: behavior model.

Behavior models are invaluable in life and in business.

One example is Doug, a former boss of mine who often spent a part of his evenings working on algebra problems.

When he mentioned this to me, my first thought was that it was a very odd pastime, but he was such a great guy to work with that it seemed like a harmless eccentricity.

It took a while, but it eventually became clear that there was more to it.

We worked in a technical area and it finally dawned on me what the evening algebra problems were all about.

He wanted to make sure that his mind and his basic math skills stayed sharp so that he “thought technically” in his approach to problems at work.

Eventually I came to recognize also that it was part of his preparation for the responsibilities of his position.

We all tried to keep up with the technology changes, but he took it one step further. He was responsible for all of us and he was making sure his mind was ready to absorb and understand the problems we were working on as well as the information in the technical journals and other sources. It was all so that he would be a better manager.

It was this, as well as the way he communicated with his staff and spoke of them to the higher ups — making sure that they were credited with any outstanding work done, for example — that really impressed me.

I had never encountered anyone quite like that before, and began, as best I could, to model my work behavior after his — including trying to prepare and keep my mind ready for the job and its responsibilities…even, gulp, if that entailed an algebra problem or two.

If you are lucky enough to have a workplace behavior model that fits you and lets you progress, you will still have need for good advice — and a mentor is one source.

A mentor, however, is a very different animal from a behavior model. Mentors are capable of giving us wise and timely advice about workplace decisions and career choices even though we cannot be, or might not want to be, anything like them.

A mentor is most typically part of the same organization as you, although that is not an ironclad rule.

Mentors are one type of adviser, and if you have had any experience with advisers you know how different they can be.

Some take a genuine interest in your progress and others, well, seem to see you and your questions as time-wasting nuisances.

Don’t waste time with mentors who are uninterested in you. Be diplomatic, but gradually and systematically wind down the contact time. In most cases your waning interest will be welcomed.

Unlike mentors, other advisers may come from other companies, or may be family members, friends, or individuals you have worked with and come to trust.

And trust is a key word, not to be confused with advice that is always spot on.

The iron-clad rule in selecting an adviser is that they treat the conversation as absolutely confidential. And sometimes that is all that’s needed: a conversation.

Talking through a decision or problem often provides the answer. No specific advice is necessary.

An adviser like this is more like a “consigliere,” a Mafia term for the person that the boss trusts for advice and for taking care of business and sometimes personal matters as well — all in absolute confidence.

For most of us, though, finding the right individual for this role is difficult, often disappointing, and often determined by chance more than design.

If you are lucky enough to find both a behavior model and a consigliere in your life, you don’t have guaranteed success but you are better equipped and prepared for it than most of the competition. The rest of the job is up to you.

James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant. He also writes a column for the monthly Herald Business Journal.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.