Recently, I saw the phrase “Build a Mentor” and I thought what a novel idea, and it got me thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if each of us had the ultimate mentor?” But the ultimate mentor would not be one person, it would be a representation of all that we expect from mentoring, and is a combination of people and resources that can meet our mentoring needs.
You can have an ultimate mentor, but you have to build her, and think of her as an avatar called Mentorbot. We have already written about the characteristics of a great mentor, how to assess your mentoring needs, self-mentoring and create your board of mentors, so most of the work has already been done for you. We already know that no one person can satisfy all our mentoring needs, and it’s not fair to place that burden on anyone’s shoulder. At the end of the day, we are responsible for our own professional development.
With all the resources available to you on this blog, you can easily build your ultimate mentor, especially if you have taken the time to assess your mentoring needs, which is fundamental. And some of your needs can be met without talking to anyone. For instance, if you want to learn about leadership, Watership Down: A Novel
is an excellent book that demonstrates leadership, and you see that great leaders are made (Book review) and not born. If you want a process to attack a large project, read about the Wright Brothers (Profile and review of The Early History of the Airplane by Orville and Wilbur Wright). If you want to gain knowledge, skills and abilities, we have written many articles such as 7 Learning Resources and 15 Great Resources for Self-Mentoring.
You already have everything you need to build your ultimate mentor – Mentorbot – you just have to do it! Reflect on your mentoring needs and strategically fill those needs for yourself. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more! If you’re new to the blog, visit the Start Here page for my pillar posts.
Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people.
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Further Reading
Adventures: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode One
Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two
Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Three