In Greek mythology Mentor was a friend of Odysseus in the story The Odyssey.

Odysseus placed his son Telemachus in the care of Mentor when he set off for the Trojan wars.

Mentor looked after and advised Telemachus as, well, his Mentor!  As a result Telemachus grew up to be a fine young man. The story is a bit more complicated than that, but it will do to illustrate where the term Mentor came from.

The name, or term, Mentor has since been adopted in our modern world as meaning someone who imparts wisdom and knowledge with a person less experienced.

I like to think of a mentor as someone who is:

• A Coach
• A Trainer
• A Guide

Hopefully all of us are able to look back over our lives and recognise the people that have been our Mentors and help to make us better people.

But, are we passing on that legacy?

I think most of us in one form or another impart our ‘life knowledge’ to those less experienced than us – of course if you are trying to do this to your teenage kids we have to understand that, all they hear is white noise.  I suppose in these circumstances we just hope that the adage that the older our kids get, the smarter we appear to them, still holds!

Is the urge to mentor in our society being overcome by our need to constantly innovate and achieve in our lives, just to appear as if we are being a ‘valuable contributor.’  Well, I hope not, but the constant need to achieve, ourselves, instead of helping others be better than us, and perhaps take our job, is a fear perpetuated by modern organisations breeding environments of dog eat dog and working for promotion instead of the ‘greater good.’

Recently, I was involved in a mentoring program where I volunteered to be a mentor.  I thought I had something to offer.  I went along to the ‘meet and greet’ where prospective mentors met those wishing to be mentored.  As we all introduced ourselves I thought I should be on the mentee side (apologies but that is the modern term being used for those being mentored – I have just decided that it is silly – all I can think of is ‘it’s moments like these I need mentees’ – so I will use the ‘old’ term – mentorees).  Some of the people wanting to be mentored were Directors in Government, Mangers and even Doctors!  A lot of the mentors were not phased by this as they where, to me anyway, already thinking they were better than everyone else in the room, if not the planet.  I was thinking that some of these people were not being mentors for altruistic motives but for ego enhancement. Eventually, after the meet and greets the mentorees put in a list of preferences as to which people they would like to be their mentor and the matches were made by the organisers.

Well, I have been working with my mentoree for about a year now, and both of us have got a lot from it and in a lot of ways, not what we expected.

I liked the program as it got those wishing to mentor and those wishing to be mentored together.  There were costs involved for the mentorees, but the mentors all did it for nothing – well, nothing in a monitory sense.

I have a ‘smokey idea’ in my head of starting a mentoring program as part of our consulting business, so watch this space or send me any ideas or suggestions you might have either in the comments section below or email me at ianschlein@gmail.com.

So, where does that leave us at the moment.

Well, I think we all do our bit in mentoring those around us; age is not a barrier to mentor ‘up’ or ‘down’ but I think acceptance that we have something to give and/or we have something to learn, is a bit of a stumbling block for all of us.  The stumbling blocks are, if we want to learn something who do we turn to and how do we find someone who knows what we want to know and how do we find them: conversely, if we have something to offer, how do we put our hand up and get connected to prospective mentorees?  Hence the reason I am thinking about starting up a program which provides an avenue to do this.  Something along the lines of a web page (I like the name ‘AdelaideMentors’) where prospective mentors and mentorees could put in their name and details and after which they would be matched.  This would be supported by a couple of seminars throughout the year to hear from the mentors and mentorees.  So, again, what do you think?

I think one important thing is that mentoring also provides us with the opportunity to leave a bit of a legacy behind in knowledge, guidance or just making someone a little better for knowing us.  Legacy is a wonderful word and a great concept for doing things in our lives – you can’t take your things with you when you go to that higher plain, just as you can’t take that knowledge with you.  Yeah, leave a will to distribute your ‘stuff’ but what about all those years of knowledge and experience in your head – it’s just gone…..

Perhaps, next time someone less experienced than us seeks assistance, even if we are busy, or life is getting in the way, I think we have to consider, what if that was me 10, 20, 30 years ago, what would I have wanted?  If we take that minute, or even a longer investment to be that Coach, Trainer or Guide, I don’t think it is an opportunity to just make that person a better person, but perhaps I will go so far as it will make the world a better place and most definitely it will make us better.