Being connected to some folks means 'always available'. Technology can find you anywhere it seems and people expect answers immediately upon asking for information - day or night.
Many wonder if I ever flip the switch to 'off'. Certainly. Try to reach me after 9pm and it's difficult. Assume I'll see your email to my personal account or FB posting the evening it goes live and you'd be wrong.
So let me ask: Do you believe that being connected is about how many technology conduits you have to information?
Being connected - to me - is about how I am part of the flow of information. Sharing it. Passing it on. Listening to it. Using it. Changing it. Passing it on again.
If that's being connected, then I do require the use of as many channels as I can handle. Not so that everyone can reach me at all hours. But so I can accommodate how others prefer to be reached. Phone. Email. Text message. FB. This blog.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Informal Mentoring is Collaboration
The previous post generated an email which asked "by your definition of informal mentoring, have you just described consensus?"
Ha! Nope. I suppose that would be true if I believed that the opinion/viewpoint gathering was meant to dictate the outcome. But, as I've said before in this blog, sometimes everyone else is wrong when you're right.
Maybe I didn't say it quite that baldly.
Mentors, formal and informal, are not a committee who must all agree on what you should/should not do. They are guides and offer guidelines. Heck, I don't even want my son to take all my advice at face value - if he's not thinking for himself and challenging my assumptions then it'll be a rocky adulthood!
Mentors are part of the collaboration that exists in any community. Folks offer input. One listens with respect and interest even if the end result is discarding the idea offered.
Mentoring is a collaboration.
Which prompts me to ask: what have you done for your mentor lately? And is there a Hallmark card for Mentor Day?
Ha! Nope. I suppose that would be true if I believed that the opinion/viewpoint gathering was meant to dictate the outcome. But, as I've said before in this blog, sometimes everyone else is wrong when you're right.
Maybe I didn't say it quite that baldly.
Mentors, formal and informal, are not a committee who must all agree on what you should/should not do. They are guides and offer guidelines. Heck, I don't even want my son to take all my advice at face value - if he's not thinking for himself and challenging my assumptions then it'll be a rocky adulthood!
Mentors are part of the collaboration that exists in any community. Folks offer input. One listens with respect and interest even if the end result is discarding the idea offered.
Mentoring is a collaboration.
Which prompts me to ask: what have you done for your mentor lately? And is there a Hallmark card for Mentor Day?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Informal Mentoring
I just had a breakfast (my fav way to have a 'meeting') with a fellow who offered me a terrific alternate view into a problem I've been chewing over.
Was that the main goal of our breakfast? Did I ask directly for the input? Nope. But it was a a fabulous part of the exchange. He appreciated the bits I brought him and I, in turn, got a nudge in my thinking.
That's informal mentoring at it's best - simply being open to what folks can offer you and not dismissing good information simply because you didn't ask for it directly.
By that definition, informal mentoring can happen all the time.
Of course, it's hard to keep one's mind open. I know mine operates at half-mast most days. So there's another way into informal mentoring that's more deliberate: asking someone you respect/like to coffee and asking their opinion.
Asking someone for their opinion works for everyone. You're not asking someone to solve the problem, just offer insight which you are free to accept, reject or alter. The more opinions you collect, the more insights you may gather. By deliberating seeking the viewpoints, you are (hopefully) keeping an open mind - which is better for those half-mast (rhymes with..) days.
Was that the main goal of our breakfast? Did I ask directly for the input? Nope. But it was a a fabulous part of the exchange. He appreciated the bits I brought him and I, in turn, got a nudge in my thinking.
That's informal mentoring at it's best - simply being open to what folks can offer you and not dismissing good information simply because you didn't ask for it directly.
By that definition, informal mentoring can happen all the time.
Of course, it's hard to keep one's mind open. I know mine operates at half-mast most days. So there's another way into informal mentoring that's more deliberate: asking someone you respect/like to coffee and asking their opinion.
Asking someone for their opinion works for everyone. You're not asking someone to solve the problem, just offer insight which you are free to accept, reject or alter. The more opinions you collect, the more insights you may gather. By deliberating seeking the viewpoints, you are (hopefully) keeping an open mind - which is better for those half-mast (rhymes with..) days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)