RescueDigest GOTW: Mentor Someone

Posted by: romduck October 22, 2012

GOAL OF THE WEEK

As an emergency responder you’re already out there working hard to make the world a better place. Every day your To-Do list fills up quickly with daily chores and responsibilities and at the end of the day there are plenty of things that we still SHOULD be doing for ourselves and those we care for.

By focusing on a particular goal each week and providing some resources to get you started, RescueDigest is here to help make your world a little but easier and to help you help others. Let’s try MENTORING SOMEONE!

As it can take many forms, mentorship has many definitions. At its most basic, mentorship describes a process for the transfer of knowledge, feedback and support through a relationship between a person who is more experienced in a particular topic (the mentor) and a person who is less experienced or practiced in that topic (sometimes termed the “mentee” although the correct term is “protégée”). While we commonly think of mentorship as someone who is older, wiser, more experienced and / or higher in business or social rank helping in the development of someone who is younger, less experienced and / or a subordinate, that is certainly not possibility. My grandmother has taught me how to cook, clean, conduct myself properly in a nice restaurant and swear in French, but recently I was able to help her learn how (and why) to use a new iPad. Nobody who knows her would ever thinking of claiming that I (or anyone else) “outranks” my grandmother, and yet in this case I can be her mentor in technology. The same can be true around the firehouse, in the ambulance garage, or wherever you happen to work.

Read on…

(Who will YOU mentor?)

So if you’ve been around the block a few times, and you see someone at work who could use a tip or two, you might consider mentoring them. As with other Goals of the Week, we’ll let the experts give you those mentoring best practices, but we’d like to get you started with one bit of advice. Remember that mentorship is a relationship and that it involves giving not just wisdom, but also support. When you let the newbie know “You really messed that up.” or “You shoulda done it like this!” and stop there, that isn’t the same thing as mentoring. Mentoring isn’t just blurting out corrections. It involves leading by example and providing feedback, support and inspiration. In fact, here’s an easy way to figure out if you may already be mentoring someone (you may not even know it). Do people come up to you to ask you to help THEM answer questions, solve problems or get better at some aspect of their job? If so, then congratulations, you’re a mentor already! Wether that’s the case, or you think that you might have what it takes to work with others to make your workplace and maybe your whole profession a little better, then check out the RescueDigest tips for workplace mentorship below.

As with all of our #GOTW reminders, we’re going to be trying these right along with you!