By Mary Beth Rogers, ED.S., CFO, MSBO Board President, Executive Director of Business Services, Clarkston Community Schools
Most of you are familiar with my three strategic goals. I focused on Generational Change in my October column. One of my goals is mentoring, which happens to be my passion. I have always been very active on MSBO Listservs, asking and answering questions. I find as I am later in my career the answering is becoming more and more. As stated, in my MSBO candidate profile, I want to give back. In all of the stages of my career several individuals have either served as my mentor or at least answered my questions. Even at this stage in my career, over 20 years of experience, I heavily rely on assistance from others. I have a small group of Business Officials that I email on a regular basis. We regularly share information. This group is vital in my success especially as our jobs have become more complex and always changing. Throughout my career, I have relied on mentoring to be successful. We cannot be on an island on our own. We will miss something.
What is mentoring? When I googled what is the best definition of mentoring this is the definition that came up: “when someone shares their knowledge, skills, and experience with another person to help them to progress.” I, personally, enjoy sharing my knowledge, skills and experience with others. Over the years, I have informally mentored a few individuals that have reached out to me. They have been successful even surpassing me in their careers and it has been amazing to watch them grow and be successful. In the beginning of my career, I reached out to a Business Official who mentored me. You will hear me say over and over that we need to equip the incoming MSBO members with the tools to guarantee their success.
Yes, mentoring does take up time and we are very busy in our day-to-day responsibilities. However, let’s look at the positivity of mentoring. I really believe that the mentor gets as much out of the relationship as the mentee. It is a quid pro quo relationship. Being a mentor does not exclude you from being a mentee. I highly encourage being both. The mentor can also learn from the mentee and we can all be better as leaders, better in our jobs and be more successful if we work together. This has been my experience over the years. We cannot be alone on an island. We all need each other. Why not have more tools in your tool belt.
Mentoring has always been important on the instructional side. The state requires mentors for new teachers. Why do we not have a more formalized mentoring process for non-instructional staff? How would that look? I have done some thinking and research on what this would look like. Here are some ideas.
First, we could develop a list of volunteers, qualified individuals who are willing to be mentors. Share this list with potential mentees. It is difficult for some individuals to reach out, to be bold and ask questions. Or maybe they do not know what to ask. Let’s be proactive and get our names out there as potential mentors so the new folks can feel more comfortable reaching out. Once we have the mentor list and mentees, and mentors are paired up, the mentor and mentee could schedule monthly meetings to check in and allow the relationship to be built, the mentee to ask questions and to discuss scheduled topics.
Second, the mentee and or mentor could reach out informally to each other in between monthly meetings through a quick email or text. This would allow the mentee to get their quick questions answered during the month or just to give them the confidence that they are doing the task correctly. It is vital to stay connected, provide regular feedback and allow the individuals to be honest and vulnerable so that mistakes are leveraged for development rather than hidden to avoid embarrassment.
These mentoring relationships should be measured to maintain and improve success. Data such as mentorship satisfaction surveys can assist in making improvements. In addition, data can be provided for improved leadership and growth.
As leaders, we can ignite passion, provide guidance, and build new leaders to be equipped with the necessary tools for success, to take on more significant roles with confidence. We cannot be on an island alone.
Other Articles in this Newsletter
- A Perfect Time to Give Thanks – Michelle Sine
- Awards: Recognizing MSBO Members
- Deadline for MSBO Board Candidate Applications is December 1
- Group Solutions: Practical Solutions
- MSBO Annual Conference & Exhibit Show Update
- MSBO Leadership Institute Transforms Leadership Skills
- MSBO Update – Robert Dwan
- Take Advantage of these MSBO Scholarships
- Welcome New Members
- Winter Travel Advisory: Not a Problem