What Makes a Mentor

I have an article sidebar as part of my mouse pad and I wanted to share this with you. It is titled, "What Makes a Mentor."

A good mentor . . .

• is someone absolutely credible whose integrity transcends the message, be it positive or negative;
• tells you things that you may not want to hear but leaves you feeling you have been heard;
• interacts with you in a way that makes you want to become better;
• makes you feel secure enough to take risks;
• gives you the confidence to rise above your inner doubts and fears;
• supports your attempts to set stretch goals for yourself; and
• presents opportunities and highlights challenges you might now have seen on your own.

Go hug a mentor today!

Unfortunately when I cut this out, I also cut off it's source. If you know (or are) the source, please comment so I can give credit where credit is due.

Update on Saturday, April 26, 2008 by Lisa

Found it. This is a sidbar from a Harvard Business Review article, "Why Mentoring Matters in a Hypercompetitive World." Subscription not required to access the article. Lesson learned - save the citatons!

Comments

[Wally Bock]

Good post. Kudos to the original writer and to you for sharing. Here are two more things that might go on that list.

A good mentor loves what he or she is doing.

A good mentor learns from you, too.