The Mentor inside You.

Mentoring occurs in formal and informal ways. While formal mentoring programs are valuable, more of us are likely to have opportunities for informal mentoring in our workplace and in our communities.Mentoring has a dramatic history. As told in Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, left home to fight in the Trojan War. He entrusted the care of his palace and of his son, Telemachus, to Mentor, an old friend. At key times, the goddess Athena disguised herself as Mentor and energetically served as overseer and guide to as he searched for his father. Centuries later, in 1699, Adventures of Telemachus by educator and philosopher Francois Fenelon, presented a stronger portrayal of Mentor as one who counsels, guides, nurtures, advises and enables (Roberts 1999). Thus, is defined as:* Someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person (Merriam-Webster).* An experienced and trusted advisor (Oxford English Dictionary).These definitions frame the way in which we think about mentoring, whether it occurs in the academy or the business world or in youth development programs. Professional literature, conference presentations, and training sessions often focus on how to be a good mentor and how to establish mentoring programs and relationships in which the mature person and/or professional guides the younger person and/or rookie.An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education describes the efforts of the National Research Mentoring Network (nrmn)-funded by a $21 million grant from the National Institutes of Health-to more aggressively address diversity in the sciences and engineering by connecting students with professionals in related fields (Patel 2016). Leaders of the nrmn project recognize that the training of mentors is important and note, for example, that the scientific skills of an experienced professional do not always translate to the gentle shepherding of aspiring students.Whether a mentoring program is scaled nationally, like nrmn, or locally, as at a college or youth organization, the formal aspects of training, mentor-mentee matching, and follow-up deserve continued attention.Rarely does a week go by without one reading or hearing of one or more formal mentoring programs at a college or professional organization or in a community. Mentoring relationships are valued because of their expected outcomes. In this, there is a strong intersection of interests. In general, we aim for the mentee to benefit. We want mentees to experience more connectedness with the organization, to improve their performance and behavior, and to feel more satisfied and successful. We also seek benefits for the mentor, who likely feels satisfaction and may learn from the perspectives and experiences of the mentee. In addition, there are organizational and societal benefits, such as improved employee retention, commitment to a profession, and healthier and more acceptable behavior.Whether the goals of these interests and of the formal programs that promote them are fully realized is a matter of some conjecture (Eby 2008), but most of us can attest to experiencing some or all of these benefits. But is mentoring always part of a formal mentoring program?I have collaborated in the development of formal mentoring programs and have assumed direct assignment as a mentor. I believe in formal mentoring programs. But when I reflect on the length of my life and of my career, I confess that except during a satisfying internship in graduate school, I myself was never a designated mentee. Yet in retrospect, I can identify several people who significantly influenced and helped me apart from any formal mentoring program; I certainly regard them as mentors who clearly fit the definitions above.These mentors were (and are) more than role models. Beyond being exemplary professionals (role models) themselves, my informal mentors engaged me in extended conversations, involved and nurtured me in activities that expanded my own capabilities, and advised me as to new opportunities. …