Page 42 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Have a Good Track Record • 23

to your mentor, do it completely, all at once, and before he or she hears
it from someone else.
Follow up and report back; let your mentor know the kind of impact
he or she had. Don’t let him or her wonder what happened to you.
Share milestones and successes. Compliment your mentor on his or
her insight and intelligence.
Give back. Provide your mentor with information of interest or of
benefit to him or her, for example, a news piece, magazine article, new
book, or support for a cause he or she cares about. An occasional bottle
of wine or tickets to a show don’t go unnoticed either.
Note that a mentoring relationship is not a place to pitch your
product or turn the conversation into a therapy session or a job interview.
You can sustain a single mentoring relationship over a 20-, 30-, or
40-year period (or more)—basically depending on how long you live and
when you started it! It’s a professional friendship that can be fed like any
friendship. Through it all, treat the person like you would want to be
treated.
Regardless of where you are in your own career, be a mentor to
others. It’s required. Help others on their journey; you’re not the only
person with a dream.

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Be a mentor even if you’re just beginning your career, both for prac-
tice and for reward. Share your knowledge.
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I mentor every day, pass on wisdom to help people to anticipate
rather than react. It frees people and speeds up their development.

Sponsors, backers, or as some call them, “rabbis” (as opposed to
mentors) put your name forward, speak on your behalf, and fight for you
in addition to advising and coaching you. You need to “carry their bags”
in return, meaning: Be worth sponsoring, have a good track record, be
ethical, be optimistic, be good-humored, and be willing to listen and
learn. Most important, do unto others as you are lucky enough in having
done unto you.