Mentoring: How to Mentor Yourself (when you want to learn something)
Do you believe that mentoring is important?
The most successful executives have consistently said that they attribute their success to a mentor, coach, sponsor, or a combination thereof. The professional social networking platform, LinkedIn conducted a survey of 1000 females a few years ago, and found that although 82 percent of the women agree that having a mentor is important, 19 percent have never had a mentor. These women cited that the reason for never having a mentor was due to not finding someone appropriate or because no one ever asked. Nearly 20 percent of the women surveyed are not proactive about mentorship.
Statista conducted a global survey to identify the career objectives and priorities of men and women. The results indicate:
- 59 percent of women want to develop knowledge and skill vs 57 percent of men
- 44 percent of women are interested in career planning vs 45 percent of men.
- 15 percent of women wanted to be involved in a mentoring program while 18 percent of men wanted the same thing.
Although people realize that mentoring is important, one of the benefits that they do not talk about, or may not even realize is that mentoring can aid accelerated learning. Yes, you can learn from a mentor, who is further down the path that you are on, and she can provide guidance regarding your career. And with advances in technology, it is much easier today to learn from the experiences of others – there are podcasts, interviews, biographies that you can access online in seconds. When people think about mentors, they often think about a traditional mentoring program where an older person mentors a younger one, and there lies the barrier to mentoring.
Some of my greatest mentors have been the books I read. Don’t get me wrong, I do think that having a “live” mentor is important, but being proactive and finding ways to mentor yourself is important – even if you have a mentor.
Related Reading
The Ultimate Guide To Finding A Mentor
When you study the lives of successful people, many have stated that some of their greatest mentors were the books they devoured. These successful people do not read books the way that the average person does, instead they are searching for that one big idea that can transform a life. When they read, they are looking for practical takeaways that they can immediately apply. They are active readers, who take notes, and reflect on the information they are absorbing. They take the information and make it their own.
I wrote a series about Do-it-Yourself mentoring a few years ago, but mentoring yourself is so important that I have decided to revisit it. A lot of the content in the series of three blog posts are still applicable, but I will offer some guidance on how to use information that is readily available. People often tell me that they do not have the time to read because there are so many other activities that compete for the time they have. And they also have a challenge carving time for any form of professional development.
Related Post
Mentor Yourself: DIY Mentoring Program
Mentor Yourself: DIY Mentoring Program, Part Two
Mentor Yourself: DIY Mentoring Program, Part Three
James Altucher’s Definition of Mentors
-
Someone who is in front of you who will show you how they did it. What is “it”? Wait. By the way, mentors aren’t like that old Japanese guy in “The Karate Kid.” Ultimately most mentors will hate you.
-
Books. {See More On How Books Can Be Better Mentors Than People… And My New Solution To Help You Find Your Mentor – Click Here}. You can outsource 90 percent of mentorship to books and other materials. 200-500 books equals one good mentor. People ask me, “What is a good book to read?” I never know the answer. There are 200-500 good books to read. I would throw in inspirational books. Whatever are your beliefs, underline them through reading every day.
-
Everything is a mentor.If you are a zero, and have passion for reinvention, then everything you look at will be a metaphor for what you want to do.2The tree you see, with roots you don’t, with underground water that feeds it, is a metaphor for computer programming if you connect the dots. And everything you look at, you will connect the dots.
How to Mentor Yourself
The first step is to gain clarity about what you want to learn. Episode One of the Do-It-Yourself mentoring blog post includes a mini needs assessment that you can do. I know that many successful people do not read for entertainment, they read for information or to further their knowledge. For me, I have to do all three, because it is very difficult for me to read for information or knowledge all the time – I love mysteries and I also love to read romance novels. The trick is to find the correct balance for you. So, based on what you want to learn, find books that can mentor you and give you the knowledge and skills you are looking for.
However, there is a shortcut that I would like to tell you about. If you seriously cannot find the time to read, an option is a good book summary. Book summaries can be a pricey, so if you have a tight budget, Derek Sivers – someone whom I trust because he has attained mega success in his life – posted the notes he took while reading books over a few years. These notes are very detailed and there is a lot that you can learn from them. I like his honesty and I trust him. You will find an abstract about each book, and if you want to read the entire notes, just click on the link. The lengths of his notes vary – some are six printed pages and others are over 20.
Although, I am writing book summaries that I plan to sell, most of the books I am reading are very different from the ones that Derek has online. The way that I summarize each book is also very different from the way Derek writes his notes. And I also think that all of us benefit when we support each other. I have been printing and reading his summaries and I am finding them very useful and learning a lot.Another option to mentor yourself is by listening to podcasts, and the best place to find them is Apple’s iTunes.
I must admit that I am not big on podcasts because I am a more visual person, but I am going to have to ease my way into listening to them. Search for the subject areas that you are interested in and try to listen to one a day, or you could alternate listening to podcasts while reading book summaries. You can listen to your podcast during your commute.
Connecting Ideas
Try reading two book summaries a day and you will be surprised by how much knowledge you have gained over a month. I would like you to go one step further though, instead of simply reading the available book summaries on Derek’s website and listening to podcasts, I would like you to extract ideas that you can implement, then implement them. And also find ways to connect the ideas from the different books and podcasts, even ones that are dissimilar. Connecting ideas often lead to innovation.
Imagine how much you will learn by simply using tools and resources to mentor yourself.
Further Reading
Visual Thinking and Pattern Recognition
It will take you a while to work through Derek Sivers’ notes because there are about 200 books. After you have worked through all his notes, I would like you to dedicate that time to read books.
