Egg, Lava, Pupa, Butterfly.
Kindergarten, Primary, High school, College.
Junior, Intermediate, Senior, Professional.
These dear reader, are popular life stages.
What steps are you taking to move from the current stage to the next?
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
At what stage of the human cycle are you right now?
What steps are you taking to move from the current stage to the next?
Toastmasters and Guests, to move from one stage to the other requires work. Who has ever seen a butterfly turn from the pupa stage to a butterfly. It does not happen in just one day. There is work that goes into it.
Remember the day you finished your primary leaving exams? How about the day you finished your A-Levels at high school? Remember your last day at University? How about your first day at Work?
All those are stages in your life. Life’s Levels.
Perhaps you are an associate and want to make a senior associate. A manager and want to make the senior manager or perhaps director? How do you plan to go about that?
When I had just started out at work. I was a graduate officer. Excited to start on my first job. With everything that comes with your first job. Some money in your pocket and the freedom to stay out late at night. No curfew, right?
The first project I did at work was to start a regular company newsletter. The Public Relations Officer who was a superior of mine came to me with this request. Her bosses wanted it and she had identified me as someone that could do it.
How was I going to start on this project all by myself? I could pick a team but how was I going to approach these busy people and convince them to join my team? Was I going to pay them? Did this project have a budget?
Fast forward. In 3 months we had our first copy of the newsletter. Printed in 1000 copies. How was all this possible? It was all in the magic of the Mentor and the protege. My superior was the Mentor and I was the protege. Together we made magic. We both had our strengths and weaknesses. We both learnt a thing or two from the other. There was a willing learner and a willing teacher.
Mentorship is not complicated when you break it down. It is in the simple things like the emphasis on time keeping with the team. It is the simple corrections like fixing typos in a document and politely letting your protege know. One thing my mentor taught me that I still do to date, 10 years later is to read through an email 5 times before I hit the send button. We all know how emails work. Once you hit that send button. You can not call that email back. Mentoring can also be in selfless actions like making the time to listen to the ideas of your protege even if you have a better idea.
Dear reader, Whom are you mentoring today? At work, at home, or at your local club. Whom are you transforming from a child to a man.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
