The Importance of a Mentor....

I drove to Pennsylvania last weekend to see my mentor from my old New York City days. Larry has been a Certified Project Management Professional and Entrepreneur for almost thirty years now and took me  under his wing as part of his mentoring and leadership development program.

It was wonderful to visit with him and his lovely wife Marilyn again. We sat in the mountains in beautiful northeast Pennsylvania talking about old times. And as we chatted, I realized that his stories about the old days had always been my foundational stories for learning about business, my career, and my place in the professional world.

There's the Story of the recalcitrant salesman, or the lesson on "Beware" of big company politics, or the wonderful story about "How to Start a Million-Dollar Company" with two college buddies. And these stories weren't just great tales of human drama, conflict and achievement, but were my own early-career personal seminar on how to make it in this world.

What these stories, and dozens of others like them, taught me was the importance of reviewing and remembering past experiences, understanding the nature of people and what they can achieve, the ability to succeed with hard work, cleverness, and passion, and the essence of life in the professional world.

A mentor teaches you faster than you can teach yourself. The stories, the wisdom, the guidance, that they provide gives you the benefit of understanding the world before you've actually lived through it. And the emotional support and reassurance that somebody who has "been there, done that" can offer to a wet-behind-the-ears greenhorn is comforting as you navigate your way through new experiences.

It is important to seek out mentors. It's no accident that Luke Skywalker needs his Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars saga, that Daniel-san learns from Mr. Miyagi in the classic Karate Kid, that Alexander the Great had Aristotle as his teacher and mentor, or that I have my Larry Puleo.

The young hero — that's you, whatever your age — needs to learn from a master, to grow in wisdom and learning while being guided by somebody with greater experience, to have a sounding board and sympathetic ear in times of turmoil.

This is true for your career in general, and especially when considering any kind of professional change. I've served in a managerial capacity functioning as a "Change Agent" for over two decades and based on  experience, research, and best practices, we here at kbs Innovations can help  you develop the strategy and tactics necessary to achieve your professional goals and growth.

But you also need, very importantly, guidance on how to identify and implement "Positive Change" as well as how to handle the rough seas of resistance to that change. And a mentor is the best resource for that type of wisdom. He or she can give you insight into the players, the personalities, the problems, and the challenges that will arise while opening up a world of  various opportunities  to you.
What a mentor also provides is wisdom and insight into whether you should go to that big company or the hot little start-up, whether you ought to stay in your area of functional expertise or move towards more general management, whether you'll be better off working for the tough and demanding boss, or you'll thrive in a more collegial atmosphere.

Life is all about choices and the decisions that you make. A good mentor can help you to make the right ones.
So I'd urge you to find and cultivate your mentors. Whether she's an old boss, or a more senior colleague, a college friend,  somebody in the industry that you admire, or a professional like myself, developing those relationships can make your career growth much smoother and rewarding.

As a mentor I have learned you can also get something back by giving. Remember, "The brighter the student, the more the teacher learns." There's no better way to learn, or re-learn, something than by teaching it. And by taking that bright young woman or man under my wing, I am not only helping out the next generation, but you would be surprised at how much I have learned over the years!

So thank you to Larry and Marilyn for the wonderful weekend in Pennsylvania and the chance to reconnect over some lovely home cooking and a few bottles of wine.