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Having a mentor is totally different than obeying a parent or an academic guidance counselor. A mentor isn’t a best friend or an older brother. Your mentor is part role model, part sounding board, and part network gatekeeper, and can be very useful in making the right decisions to promote career goals.
We’re going to explore the whole world of mentors and protégés; being a mentor can be equally fulfilling. Mentoring has grown into a cottage industry of non-profits, but also well-paid “pop” psychotherapists, professional coaches, and trainers.
Seinfeld dedicated a whole episode to the Mentor-Protégé Relationship: The young protégé, impressed by the voluminous textbook on the desk, asked George in awe, “Can you explain Risk Management to me?” George, of course, didn’t know the first thing about it and dreaded reading the tome for a Board meeting. He keenly replied, “Let’s just see if you could explain it to me!” The hilarity may be lost in reality, but the word ‘protégé’ still makes me laugh because of that show.
Needless to say, that isn’t how the mentor-protégé relationship should work. Obviously protégés aren’t indentured servants for their mentors. Protégés don’t even have to listen to your advice. As a protégé, you just have to be honest and open. Check your ego at the door.
With my father, my firm has offered counseling services to hundreds of entrepreneurs and professionals. But we more closely resemble advisors than mentors. There is a big difference.
Advisors, in one way or another, tell their clients what to do. We may provide our counsel outright, or we may use a questioning technique called the Socratic Method. In this way, the two can sound very similar and are thus confused.
