Over the past 13 days, we’ve shown the progress of a relationship between a Boss and direct report. This is an important relationship for if it doesn’t progress in this manner:
- Direct reports will never fully realize their potential.
- Bosses won’t know the powerful feeling of creating a superstar.
- Talent won’t grow in the organization.
- Your organization won’t be known as the place where winners are developed.
And to think it all starts with a good relationship. It ends with Boss and direct report working in tandem to reach high potential.
It happens when mentoring takes place. Mentoring….one of the oldest forms of professional development.
Plato mentored Socrates. Elijah mentored Elisha. Jesus mentored his disciples. The Skipper mentored Gilligan. Gandhi mentored Martin Luther King , Jr. Walter White mentored Jesse Pinkman…and so on.
What does mentoring look like? A protégé identifies traits they either admire or need if they want to grow. They find an experienced person that lives these traits. They strike up an agreement on how the mentoring relationship will work and then the process begins. It ends with the protégé growing personally and professionally. Then at some point they become a mentor to others.
But this never happens until those 13 steps we talked about in this series happens. We go from stranger to trusted advisor. It’s the way it’s always been and should be for you.
As The Boss, your job is to develop talent. Mentoring is a key part of it. How about today you make the choice to follow our steps and take on this challenge? You have so much experience to share. Don’t let it go to waste.