The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Richard Branson’

In the recent mentoring survey by the social network LinkedIn, a large percent of women reported that the reason they didn’t have a mentor was because no one had asked them. This is the first in a series that will assist you in taking control of your career by creating your own personal mentoring program. Instead of waiting to be asked if you would like to be mentored, you will learn how to take the initiative in finding appropriate mentors for yourself.

It may seem weird to you that there is such a thing as a do-it-yourself mentoring program. We have been conditioned to think of mentoring in a certain way, in a traditional way, where someone, usually at a senior level, advises and guides another person at a more junior level. Before you create a mentoring program for yourself, first you have to understand what mentoring is, as well as determine what your true needs are, so that you seek appropriate mentors and tap into relevant networks.

The Story behind Mentoring

In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, when Odysseus, the Greek King of Ithaca left to fight in the 10-year Trojan War, he left his old friend Mentor in charge of his household and young son Telemachus. The real Mentor is not mentioned that much in the story; however, the immortal Goddess Athena, disguises herself as Mentor and encourages Telemachus to stand up to the men who were courting his mother Penelope.

Athena also encourages Telemachus to go abroad to seek word about what has happened to his father, who had now been away for almost 20 years. Additionally, Athena acts as a mentor to Odysseus as he goes through the many trials during his return journey to his palace in Ithaca after the war.

In more recent times, Freddie Laker mentored Sir Richard Branson, Roger Corman mentored Martin Scorcese and Ron Howard, Michelle Robinson mentored Barack Obama and former Xerox CEO Anne M. Mulcahy mentored Ursula Burns to take over the reins. (For some interesting mentor-protégé pairings click here for an extensive list on Peer Resources).

Definition of Mentoring

The modern usage of mentor – trusted friend, counsellor or teacher – first appeared in François Fénelon’s Les Aventures de Telemaque in 1699, Wikipedia (2009).  Dictionary.com has a similar definition for a mentor, “Wise and trusted counsellor or teacher, an influential senior sponsor or supporter.”  And Wikipedia notes that “Mentors provide their expertise to less-experienced individuals to help them advance their careers, enhance their education.”

However, the concept of mentoring has been evolving over the past few years, and it’s no longer a traditional one-to-one or relationship. Mentoring is conversations, interactions, support and other networks and our relationships with others. Mentoring can occur in moments (profound conversation you have with others, or the interviews I conduct with others), over a period of time (mentoring for a specific period of time) or even over a lifetime (parents are often great mentors). Once you embrace the broader meaning of mentoring and mentors, it’s much easier for you to create a mentoring program that’s just right for you.

In addition to the above, there is also a new kind of mentoring – invisible mentoring. An invisible mentor is a “unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from a distance.” You may call these people role models, but they are also your invisible mentors. The invisible mentor concept may be unfamiliar to you, but in Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, which was first published in 1937, the author writes about what he calls “invisible counsellors”.  According to Hill, “I followed the habit of reshaping my own character by trying to imitate the nine men whose lives and life works had been most impressive to me… Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Paine, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Luther Burbank, Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie… I studied the records of their lives with painstaking care.”

Step One in Creating your Mentoring Program

Before you get down to the nitty-gritty of creating your mentoring program, you first have to understand yourself and your needs, the why behind wanting a mentor. Here is your first action to take.

Mini Mentoring Needs Analysis

1. What are your vision, mission and purpose in life?
2. In the next three years, where would you like to be in your personal and professional life? Please frame your responses in the form of personal and professional goals for each of the five life areas – Economic/Financial, Social, Health/Fitness, Business/Career and Personal. Have no more than 10 goals and assign timelines to them for what you want to accomplish in the first, second and third year.
3. Think about your professional goals, what gaps exist between where you are now, to where you would like to be in the next three years?
4. What actions do you have to take to fill those gaps?
5. What knowledge do you have to acquire to fill those gaps?
6. Who are the experts that you can learn from, and what are their areas of expertise?
7. Of the experts that you identified, which ones do you respect and are respected by others?
8. If trusted friends could introduce you to five people who would be ideal mentors for you, would you choose? Would your ideal mentors be similar to the experts you identified above?
9. The five ideal mentors that you choose in the above question, what qualities and traits do they possess, which accounted for you choosing them?
10. Who are some people within your organizations, and other networks who have the same goals as you do? (These people could be potential members for mentoring groups that you create).
11. At the end of a mentoring relationship, what would success for you look like?

In the next episode of the DIY Mentoring Program, we’ll delve further into the process.

I am thinking of creating a digital product that fleshes out the DIY Mentoring Program. What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Related articles

• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Three (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two (theinvisiblementor.com)

Over centuries, mentors have been playing a significant role in the lives of successful people. Mentor first appeared in Homer’s Odyssey where he was left in charge of Telemachus, the young son of King Odysseus who went to fight in the Trojan War. The Goddess Athena disguised as Mentor advised Telemachus when he grew older, to go and search for his father who had now been gone for 20 years.

Image via Wikipedia

In more recent times, Freddie Laker mentored Sir Richard Branson, Roger Corman mentored Martin Scorcese and Ron Howard, and former Xerox CEO Anne M. Mulcahy mentored Ursula Burns to take over the reins.

Since Mentor first appeared, the mentoring role has evolved into what it is today. According to Dictionary.com, a mentor is a “Wise and trusted counselor or teacher, an influential senior sponsor or supporter.”

But mentors can be invisible.

That means that the mentor does not know that they are mentoring us. These invisible mentors are our role models. We choose them because we want to study their behaviours. We want to learn from them so we can possibly mimic their actions. Often they have done something that we would like to do, or are trying to do but with some difficulty.

Mentors who are invisible to their mentees have been around for a while.

The concept of the invisible mentor is not new. Napoleon Hill talks about them in his timeless classic Think and Grow which was first published in 1937, but he calls them “invisible counselors”.

According to Hill, “I followed the habit of reshaping my own character by trying to imitate the nine men whose lives and life works had been most impressive to me… Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Paine, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Luther Burbank, Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie… I studied the records of their lives with painstaking care.”

He not only studied the lives of his nine invisible mentors, but he blended the information he learned with his knowledge, and he acted on the information by imaging their good qualities. This investment in time spent getting to know these nine men benefitted him tremendously because he knew them so well that he could anticipate how they would respond in various situations – and he responded that way.

More recently, in 2000, Washington State University professor Karen L. Peterson in her paper “Invisible Mentor: Communication Theory and Lilian Katz” wrote about invisible mentors and described the mentee as an absorbent learner. “Invisible mentors are not “super-human” persuaders or orators, nor are they icons with intractable wisdom. An invisible mentor has the capacity and capability (albeit a gift) to see just above the “tree top” and the ability and commitment to come “back down” and tell many below what can be seen… The invisible mentor has the instinctive capability to sort out the valuable from the superfluous,” said Peterson.

Invisible mentors are still relevant today.

After researching the idea of “invisible mentors,” I concluded that they are unique leaders you can learn things from, by observing them from a distance. It is not enough to have one traditional mentor, because no one person can fill all the roles we need them to. But invisible mentors can complement our traditional mentor. Napoleon Hill had his personal Board of Invisible Counselors. And we can have the same.

It is easier for us than it was for Napoleon Hill because of the unprecedented access we have to information. Today, most of us have access to the Internet, which opens us up to online databases, videos, podcasts, e-books, free courses, you name it. At the click of a mouse, we can learn about almost anyone, we can find and study our own invisible mentors.

And with social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, it easier to contact people who once appeared untouchable and unreachable to us. In addition, Skype allows us to talk to people in other countries without long distance charges that can be prohibitive.

Invisible mentors are relevant today because if we choose our invisible mentors carefully, they can help to accelerate our success trajectory, but we have to be willing to invest the time like Napoleon Hill did to research those who have travelled the path we are embarking on. Or who have done, or are doing what we most want to do. And most importantly, we have to blend that newfound knowledge with what we already know.

So, what’s next?

• What are you are trying to accomplish in life?
• Who are five people who have done what you are trying to do?
• Have they written books or developed videos and other material that explains what they did and how they did it?
• If the five people who you chose are still alive, would they be willing to speak to you for 15 minutes?
• What skills do you lack that are critical to your success?
• Who possess those skills set that you can study them?

These questions are not exhaustive, they are meant to get you thinking. Do you see the relevance of invisible mentors? You could research Napoleon Hill’s nine “invisible counselors”, or you could look at some of the interviews on this blog to get ideas. Many of the people who interviewees choose who they would most like to meet would make incredible invisible mentors as well.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Related articles

• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program (theinvisiblementor.com)
• 2011 Interviews for Mentoring (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Three (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Create Your Board of Mentors – January is National Mentoring Month (theinvisiblementor.com)

Every so often I present websites that I think you should know about. A few days ago I presented a hybrid creativity model based on Graham Wallas‘ and James Webb Young’s creativity model. In the model you have general information, which are things you discover and file away for future use. The websites today are geared toward rounding out your general knowledge. The more varied your knowledge, the more creative you are. The creative you are, the more creative ideas you unearth for problem solving.

One website I added to the mix because many people travel so I thought it would be handy for discounted airfares.

Space Adventures

Provides private spaceflight opportunities.  It’s the first company to have taken clients into space.      

Virgin Galactic

Are you interested in space travel? Virgin Galactic is a space tourism operator which will be providing sub-orbital flights. It is an offshoot of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson‘s enterprise.

Ask Nature

It’s the design portal for the Biomimicry Institute. Biomimicry is a fairly new field where nature is used to inspire problem solving. The Ask Nature website is filled with lots of information that will round out your general knowledge.

Travel Alerts

You will find discounted vacation and last minute travel. Get the alerts sent to your email box each week http://www.travelalerts.com.

If money were no object, would you invest in space travel? Please keep the conversation flowing, click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. 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.

Ted talk: Biomimicry in action: Janine Benyus

Biomimicry in action: Janine Benyus

Space Tourism Markets What We Know And What We Don’t Know

Space Tourism Markets What We Know And What We Don’t Know

Photo Credit: Zemanta
Video Credit: YouTube via Apture

This is part two of Alex Todd’s interview. The one book that had a profound impact on Alex’s life is Do What You Are. According to Alex, the book, “It opened my eyes to who I really am and what kind of career I should be pursuing.” Out of all the books that you have read, which one book profoundly impacted you? Why? What ideas did you glean from the interview?

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

At heart, I am an innovator and architect.  Professionally, I am on my 8th career, oscillating between working for companies and entrepreneurial ventures in financial services and information technology, mostly in business to business commercial relationships.  For the past 7 years, after leaving IBM, I have been engaged in activities to help establish Trust Enablement as a valid management innovation, with a strategic focus on precipitating transformations in corporate governance practices. To date I have written numerous articles and papers and delivered countless presentations on these and related topics.  I am very excited that in September 2010, Wiley in the U.S. will publish my chapter on corporate governance best practices in their new finance textbook, which will allow me to officially refer to myself as a published author.  The next step will have to be writing a complete book.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

My personal and professional lives are often inseparable, as I work from home, and at times find myself working most of the time.   I accomplish full separation mostly when I engage in recreational and fitness activities.  Most weekends I get away with the family for skiing or the cottage, and we regularly take one or two-week vacations.  We also make a point of socializing with friends and family.  All these activities take me away from my office and my computer.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

I don’t have any real regrets, but believe I may have made a mistake pursuing a career in accounting upon graduating from university.

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

1. Don’t be arrogant;
2. Be honest and live with a clean conscience;
3. Invest in yourself to empower you to help others;
4. Take responsibility for your actions and your reactions;
5. Follow your heart and your passion.

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

I like to orient my down time around sports and social activities.  I like to ski, play tennis and cycle regularly.  My wife likes to entertain our friends, so we have an enjoyable life.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

First I have to be in the right frame of mind.  I have to have extended periods of time to research, noodle, explore, conceptualize, experiment and connect the dots.  This process can take days or even weeks at a time until something that has integrity gels.  It’s a different mode of thinking, so the conditions have to be right before it can produce results.  However, it always both a painful and highly inspiring process.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“Do what you are.”  It’s the name of a book that uses Myers Briggs personality assessment measures to recommend a suitable career.  I like it because it accepts reality.  By doing so, you stop beating yourself up about what you are not.  It therefore brings peace of mind and better career results.

How do you define success?

Success is achieving or making tangible progress toward stated goals or intentions.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Success begins and ends with overcoming the fear of failure.  For example, becoming a prisoner of your success is failure.  Here is my formula for success:

1. Invent a possibility;
2. Declare your intent to realize this possibility;
3. Build valued relationships with people and share your possibility with them;
4. Maintain your integrity in keeping this possibility alive by always honoring your word;
5. Touch, move and inspire people with your possibility.

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

I succeeded so far by doing a good job with the first 4 of the 5 steps listed above.  I find #5 to be my biggest challenge.

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

It is difficult to overestimate the time and effort required to realize a possibility.  So be prepared for a marathon, and successive marathons.  There is only one sure way to fail.  That is by not making it to the finish line.  Plan to finish, not to lead.  This requires passion, commitment, stamina, patience, perseverance, ingenuity, adaptability, empathy, supportive relationships and reciprocity.  Don’t follow the path of least resistance as it will cause you to become trapped in your own success.  Instead, follow your heart, even (especially) if it means forging new paths.  You can only regret not having tried something, not having tried but failed.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

I’d like to meet: Richard Branson, Barack Obama, Pierre Omidyar, Gary Hamel, and Ben Heinenman.  I’d say, “What can we do together to improve trust in business?”

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply? Did you have an emotional or intellectual attachment to this book? Why?

This is really strange, but I am obsessed with the book Do What You Are.  It opened my eyes to who I really am and what kind of career I should be pursuing. Essentially, it gave me permission to continue doing what I was doing and pursue my dreams. As a result, I stopped being so hard on myself.  I like the book so much that I must have lent it to someone and now can’t find it.  Choosing this book over the 100 or so books on my bookshelf is really surprising to me, since I have never really thought about it before.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

A spiritual book, such as the Bible; a how to survive in the wilderness book; a how to make anything from anything book; a basic governance book; a philosophy book.  Sorry, can’t think of any titles.

Have you read any books that inspired you to start a business, service or invent “something”? If yes, which book?

It was Tony Robbins tapes “Personal Power” that I listened to in the late 80s that changed my life, by giving me the courage to pursue my dreams.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

CD would have to be Off Ramp by Pat Metheny.  Movie would be Austin Powers.

What excites you about life?

TEMERITY

How do you nurture your soul?

By applying what I learned in The Landmark Forum.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

I wish I could be a part of a community that embraces experimentation, innovations and open collaboration, recognizing the common good that comes from doing so.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I am appreciated by others who matter to me.

What are five takeaways from Alex’s interview?

Please keep the conversation flowing, click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. 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. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.

It’s been one year since I’ve been blogging so I thought I’d grade myself on my blogging report card. I started to blog March 2009, and though it’s been a year, I didn’t let anyone know that I was blogging for about eight months because I wanted to build up content for the website as well as develop discipline and a comfort level around blogging. Like anything in life, the more I blogged, the better I became at it. I still have a long way to go, and there are a lot of things that I still need to learn. How do you prepare for your biggest projects?

I have honored the commitment that I made in terms of the frequency of the blog, but I am not doing as many book reviews as I committed to do. I wanted to do one each week. And, I am not reading as many of the older books that I committed to read. This is something that’s important to me and ultimately to you. Wouldn’t it be great if I  reviewed a long lost book that provided information that you could immediately use at work, and even give you that competitive edge? I firmly believe that we can use some of yesterday’s ideas to solve some of today’s problems.

I would like to interview more accomplished people from other countries to have a diversity of perspectives for a richer experience. Are there folks that you can suggest, and be a bridge in the introduction? I would also like to pull out more of the information on mentoring and career.

There is a lot of rich content on The Invisible Mentor, but I have to segment, and analyze the information to enhance the user experience. I learned about a software program Concordance, that may be able to do that for me, and there is a 30-day trial so I can test it. Wouldn’t it be great if there was enough information that we could build the perfect mentor, what would a perfect mentor look like?

How important is it to honor commitments that you make to yourself? Do you take the time to grade yourself?

As I move forward, what are some things that you’d like to see in this space?

A friend suggested that I hold a contest where my readers would choose their invisible mentor, and in this instance, they would have to choose people who are living because the prize would be mentoring sessions with the “invisible mentor” that they chose. I would need your assistance to make something like this work. If for instance someone chose, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, George Soros, Seth Godin or say a Rupert Murdoch, how would we get access to them? Is this something that you’d be interested in? Because if you were, I’d find a way to make it work.

Looking back at what I have achieved with the invisible mentor, I would grade myself a B+ on my blogging report card. I will work harder at the book reviews and strive to find books that have changed the world, and rare books that will inspire us to take action. For the past year, how would you grade yourself for your most important goals? Why did you give yourself that grade? What can you do better in the upcoming months? A B+ is on my Report Card, what’s on yours?

Let’s continue the conversation, please comment by clicking on the comment link below and let me know if (1) you’d be interested in having your invisible mentor mentor you? and (2) what you’d like to see on this blog? (3) how I can enhance the user experience for you (4) and finally, is a B+ a fair grade, why, why not?

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. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.

Photo Credit: Google via Apture