The Invisible Mentor

Archive for February, 2010

The book list is comprised of books that profoundly influenced interviewees, desert island books as well as the books that I have reviewed. There is a lot of books on the list so I do not expect you to read them all.

Books That Influence

The Bible

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

Gone with the Wind,  Margaret Mitchell

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig

Desert Island Books

Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth

Fall On Your Knees (Oprah’s Book Club), Ann-Marie MacDonald

The 1001 Arabian Nights

Don Quixote, Miguel  de Cervantes

Short stories by Alice Munroe

A Summons to Memphis, Peter Taylor

New Hart’s Rules

The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, edited by Charlotte Moseley

Books Reviewed

The Skinny on Time Management, Jim Randel

The Skinny on Success: Why not you? Jim Randel

If you have read any of the books on the list please let me know what you thought of them. Choose at least four books from the list. Find ways to connect them even if they appear to be unrelated. Remove all barriers and let your creativity flow. What are five takeaways, and five great ideas that you can immediately apply?

Keep the conversation flowing. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN, I can assist you with that too.

Note: All book links are affiliate links

Instead of an interview, I have decided to line up responses to the same career-related questions so that you can compare and contrast them. The interviews are content rich and some may find it daunting, others may find it difficult to remember all the wonderful information. This is a way for me to enhance the user experience and make it easier for you to use the information. Please let me know what you think.

How did mentors influence your life?

Gina McAdam

Their kindness and generosity, sharing their time, ideas, experiences and contacts, impressed me deeply. This gave strength when one needed it, and also a key through many doors that may have otherwise remained locked or unnoticed. Their bright example is what made me want to be a mentor as well. In 2008, I was thrilled to be named Shine Outstanding Mentor of the Year. Shine is a national industry award for female talent management in the UK hospitality and tourism industry. It was started in London by two ladies of Italian origin who wanted to make a difference to how women were seen and wanted to see themselves in the industry.

Ron LeBlanc

I have always surrounded myself with very bright people, and my mentors have always been good to me. I am always striving to improve myself.

Lynn Kahle

I can’t think of any mentors and that makes me sad…

Duke Redbird

They influenced me in terms of encouraging me to understand that the pursuit of money and power as an end was unwise and that the best advice I got, often was follow your bliss. Use the talents that you were gifted with and the money will come.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Gina McAdam

Don’t hide your light under a bushel.

Ron LeBlanc

Always deal with professionals and always get the very best people. If you do not have the best people you are not going to succeed in a difficult industry.

Lynn Kahle

I can’t think of any mentors and that makes me sad…

Duke Redbird

Be wise. I remember I was on a reserve in Morley, Alberta and there was this man in his late seventies or early eighties sitting under a tree. I sat beside him and he said to me, “What do you think about white man’s insurance?” and I said that I had never thought about it because I have never had it. He said, “I have thought about it a lot because they came around to my house to sell me insurance and I didn’t buy it,” and I said, “why?” he said, “When I was a young  man, about your age, I would chop wood for the older folks. I am an old man now, when I need a pillow someone gives it to me, and if I tell them to chop wood, they chop wood for me. That’s Native insurance. White man’s insurance won’t do that for you.” And that was the conversation and it has lived with me ever since.

Which resources (books, movies, training etc.) did your mentors recommend to you?

Gina McAdam

One fabulous mentor, Diane Morris who runs TIAW, recommended that I join and get involved in good networks. I have never looked back since. Someone who is less a mentor than a caring colleague has always signposted me to great articles, events, people and organisations.  Through him I’ve got involved in the Oxford Brookes University Bacchus Mentoring programme for final year hospitality management students. I now mentor a very motivated girl from Sweden and a very bright young man from Hong Kong.

Ron LeBlanc

I was told to keep current on the front side of things because of the constant oscillations of the market and everything else. Everything that affects your business is always shifting so stay on the front side.  Get the best data and voices. I used to read Harvard Business Review, and marketing magazines.

Duke Redbird

They encouraged me to read non-fiction books.

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Gina McAdam

Nurture the people who give to you, always give back. Also, someone I spoke to recently said that one of his mottos was ‘you can’t have two faces’. Treat everyone with equal respect. That is so true.

Ron LeBlanc

Follow your bliss, follow your passion and stay current at all times. You are always unfinished, you are always working on something you want to be and will be. Have a leading kind of curiosity that gets you access to all the information in your particular sector. You have to be passionate, and if you are not, the universe will conspire against you. You want the universe to support you. The intelligent universe will support someone who is operating within their passion and following it.

Lynn Kahle

READ.

Duke Redbird

Realize that what gets everyone up in the mornings is one of four motivations or a combination of them: money, power, self preservation and romance, which includes all the arts, and everything associated with the arts. These are the motivators, and put more emphasis on the self preservation and romance side, and less on the money and power side. You’ll be a happier person.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Gina McAdam

Respect yourself and all people; b) never give up and that’s different from cutting your losses c) know that you can’t know everything, d) trust in Someone or something higher; e) never forget to say thank you.

Ron LeBlanc

1. Follow your bliss, follow your passion: when you follow your passion you find that the universe conspires to help you along the way
2. Notwithstanding that passion, you need an honest assessment of the possibilities within the choice which you have taken. If your passion is to move piano you know there is a limitation there. If your passion is to be a head of a company you know that’s a different thing completely so you have to have a realistic view on your ambitions
3. Once your way has been chosen, the lesson in life is that you have to be the best. Every individual is unique in some way and has unique sets of talents of experiences and that uniqueness has to be shored up by all the information possible. You have to know what you are doing and be efficient in the career that you’ve chosen.
4. You cannot expand your business without co-operating. One of the imperatives is survival of the co-operatives. Every expanding business needs a level of faith and you need trusting people around you. You need to be able to give up some of the power and co-operate.
5. You can be wrong, and you have to be able to take a bullet, be candid about it and say that you are wrong. You have to be quick about it. That’s the best way forward. Meet those challenges, meet those failures with candor.

Lynn Kahle

1. Learn to listen.
2. It is better to give than receive, especially when it’s unexpected.
3. The golden rule still applies.
4. Love is infinite—your children teach you this.
5. Good health, physical and mental, really is priceless.

Duke Redbird

This is a tough question and I could write a book just to give it justice. But I would say don’t sweat the small stuff, the only thing we have is now, this moment, there is truth and relative truth, most people function on relative truth and few people have an idea about what is really truth. Another life lesson is that the opposite of birth is death and the opposite of life is eternity.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Gina McAdam

Generally, I was never afraid to try something new and see where it would lead.  I didn’t have fixed ideas and notions about myself. When I did, I knocked on the right doors. But I was lucky always to have an orbit of good and wise people around me for support.

Ron LeBlanc

Straight and unmitigated courage and confidence in my own talent and intelligence but also I have learned more and more that I need a supporting group of professionals as I move forward, education and professional support and a great deal of courage. Go for it!

Lynn Kahle

Not so sure that I have but I do keep up and change the content of a course to be as relevant as possible.

Duke Redbird

Never burn bridges, treat everyone with respect, and follow the golden rule.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Ron LeBlanc

Collect all the information possible about the field, look at it and really be mindful of how the field moves you, and make sure that it is field that you want to be in. Look at yourself and make sure that it is the place for you. You only have one life so you want to be sure.

Lynn Kahle

If you don’t love it, leave it. Do something else. There are a lot of options.

Duke Redbird

Be compassionate and have charity in your heart.

if you combined the responses what might you create? If you compared and contrasted the responses, what might you glean? Keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN, I can assist you with that too.

This post was inspired by the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. On Monday, a friend invited me over for dinner, Family Day, a holiday in a few Canadian provinces including Ontario where I reside. She has been glued to her television watching the competitions. I hadn’t watched any of the competitions so far and took the opportunity to do so.

We watched snowboarding and what an adrenaline rush, and I wasn’t even competing. Of course as a Jamaican-Canadian I was rooting for Mike Robertson, the Canadian who was a very close second behind the American competitor, Seth Wescott. For a while Robertson was leading, but Wescott took the lead at the last minute to win the gold medal. Both Mike Robertson and Seth Wescott are winners in my book.

There are times in life when we give it all we have and yet we do not win. There is no reason to feel badly because we did the best we could with what we had. Unlike the Olympics, in the absence of competition, how do you test yourself to ensure that you show up as your best self most of the time? What activities do you perform daily to ensure that you become better and do not stagnate in your field? How often do you Go for the Gold in life?

Who do you have in your support network to coach, mentor, motivate, inspire, challenge and question you, so that you reach deep within to draw on your reserves to eke out a little bit more even when you think you have nothing more to give?

WE all need a support network of people to help up show up as our best selves most of the time. In what ways are you similar to athletes? What leadership lessons can you learn from athletes?

P.S. I will be rooting for Errol Kerr who makes up the Jamaica Ski Team. Kerr a freestyle skier, is doing the unexpected. It doesn’t matter whether he wins or lose, the point is that he tried and the point is that he showed up, and the point is he went against the grain.

Keep the conversation flowing. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN, I can assist you with that too.

Photo Credit: Zemanta

Related articles by Zemanta

• Canada wins silver in snowboard cross (olympics.thestar.com)
• Wescott of U.S. wins snowboard cross gold (nbcsports.msnbc.com)
• Snowboarder Robertson says best expected (cbc.ca)

The Buffoon and the Countryman

At a country fair there was a Buffoon who made all the people laugh by imitating the cries of various animals. He finished off by squeaking so like a pig that the spectators thought that he had a porker concealed about him. But a Countryman who stood by said: “Call that a pig’s squeak! Nothing like it. You give me till tomorrow and I will show you what it’s like.” The audience laughed, but next day, sure enough, the Countryman appeared on the stage, and putting his head down squealed so hideously that the spectators hissed and threw stones at him to make him stop. “You fools!” he cried, “see what you have been hissing,” and held up a little pig whose ear he had been pinching to make him utter the squeals.

Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing.

The Buffoon and the Countryman is from Aesop’s Fables but it provides an important lesson to us. When you read the above tale, what immediately comes to mind? What is the moral of the story and how does it relate to your life? Are we so accustomed to conforming, to group think, that we are unable to differentiate between the real thing and an imitation? And, in your work and life, are your solutions creative, or do you only do the “true and tried” methods?

Do you have the courage to take the road less traveled and provide the real thing? Or will you subscribe to the herd mentality and provide imitations? As a spectator, do you applaud imitations and hiss at the real thing, or do you embrace the real thing? Or have you been conforming too long and have become too comfortable? What are some ways that you can shake things up and zig when others zag?

Keep the conversation flowing. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN, I can assist you with that too.

Photo Credit: Apture

Source of Fable: Page By Page Books

Recently there has been coverage in the media on Minute Mentoring, or speed mentoring, which is the brainchild of Dana Perino, ex-White House Press Secretary. Minute Mentoring is based on the concept of speed dating, and for those who may not know, according to Wikipedia, “Speed dating is a formalized matchmaking process or dating system whose purpose is to encourage people to meet a large number of new people. Its origins are credited to Rabbi Yaacov Deyo of Aish HaTorah, originally as a way to help Jewish singles meet and marry. Supporters argue that speed dating saves time.”

Minute Mentoring

The aim of minute mentoring is to save time. Many of these female power brokers who participated in the minute mentoring event, do not have the time to participate in traditional mentoring relationships, but are able to carve out pockets of time to share their knowledge and wisdom. If you have never had the privilege of participating in traditional mentoring relationships, instead of feeling disheartened and sorry for yourself, be proactive and take your professional development into your own hands.

Mentoring Circle

Since the face of mentoring is changing, gather together a group of your friends and colleagues and form a mentoring circle, a peer mentoring support network. The relationship is reciprocal in nature where members of the Circle work as a unit to support each other in achieving personal and professional success. As a group, identify accomplished individuals who have successfully done what you are trying to do in your careers. Think about what you would like to learn from them. Organize a minute mentoring event, and invite these mentors who you have chosen to attend.

Invisible Mentors

In addition, you can incorporate the invisible mentor concept, coined by Karen L. Peterson, a Washington State University Professor in her 2000 paper, “Invisible Mentor: Communication Theory and Lilian Katz.” As defined by Peterson, “invisible mentors” are unique leaders you can learn from by observing them from a distance. Since 2000, we have progressed a long way, with advances in Internet and other online technologies. As a group, members of the mentoring circle can identify 10 people who they have always wanted to meet, and conduct extensive research on them. What books have been written by and about them? Which speeches and presentations have they given? What concepts and models did they develop? Who mentored and influenced them? Which books influenced them and why?

Each member should present to the group what they learned so that all may benefit from the newly acquired information.

The Merging of Mentoring Circles, Minute Mentoring and Invisible Mentoring

The mentoring circle combined with minute mentoring and invisible mentoring can form a dynamite hybrid mentoring program that can benefit mentees, especially those who have not had access to traditional mentors. With careful planning, mentees can reap the benefits that other mentees who are participating in traditional mentoring programs are accustomed to reaping.

What other concept can you adapt to your mentoring program? Everything old is new again, and you have to change with the times or you will be left behind to become obsolete.

Keep the conversation flowing. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN, I can assist you with that too.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia via Apture