Finding the Jobs

Several years ago, I met a conferee at an association meeting and knew at once that she would be the perfect mentor.  She was intelligent, friendly and generous with her time.  If I wanted a sounding board, feedback or any kind of help in learning how to find another position or advance in my career, this individual seemed ideal.

The match didn’t work out in the end, (she was mentoring two other people already), but after reading The Mentee’s Guide, Making Mentoring Work for You and interviewing one of its co-authors, Dr. Lois J. Zachary, of Leadership Development Services, LLC, one thing is immediately clear.  Finding the right mentor requires some careful self-assessment and advance planning, not simply a gut feeling based on a first impression.  Here are some of their recommendations:

1. Identify your goal — why do you want a mentor?

2. Figure out what qualities you want in a mentor.

3. Determine what qualities in a mentor are “must haves”– What qualities are non-negotiable?

4.  Rank the remainng criteria — what do you want, in order of priority?

5. List possible mentors — Brainstorm a list of possibilities

6. Eliminate prospective mentors that don’t meet your requirements

7.Rate each mentor – Compare how well each of the remaining mentors stack up against one another

8.Make the decision after tallying up your responses

To hear the Money Matters & More interview with Lois J. Zachary, click onto the BlogTalkRadio media player to the right of this posting.  For more information about mentoring, check out the company blog: www.centerformentoringexcellence.com/blog

Have a great week!