Let’s start by saying something you already know. There’s never been a more complicated time for school leadership than now. Socio economic disparities alone have created a wide range of issues for school leaders to navigate. This—coupled with teacher shortages, safety concerns, and the nuanced difficulties that come with each students having access to the internet on their phones—has, indeed, complicated the life of a school leader. Teachers realize their need for greater multicultural understanding and for their schools to grow in diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. Parents are looking to teachers for guidance as teachers look to their leadership.
This is where a mentor comes in. If the issues of today’s school system are the stormy sea then a mentor is the lighthouse—guiding us away from the rocks of our own (though most times innocent) miscalculations and limited insight. There are countless benefits to having a mentor—but not just any mentor—An independent, confidential mentor apart from your organization’s structure. Let’s talk about a few:
1. Mentorship is More than Training
Most schools and most organizations have some sort of training and appraisal process. A supervisor walks you through expectations and later appraises how well you are doing at meeting those expectations. Many organizations designate more experienced personnel to train the less-experienced in the skills necessary to perform their jobs. An evaluation follows to see how well the skill has been learned and implemented.
However, two problems emerge. First, the modern educator and leader need far more knowledge and insight than developing skills. There are complex issues, relationships, and challenges to navigate. Therefore, leaders need more guidance than how to develop skills but rather how to navigate unclear situations.
Secondly, to one degree or another there is a lack of confidentiality. While a more experienced colleague can certainly be helpful, there are certain questions and concerns that are not safe to navigate with fellow colleagues. True mentorship happens when the mentee can actually be vulnerable and transparent and ask questions they can’t ask someone in the hierarchal structure of leadership. With a confidential mentor—usually someone outside their organization—the mentee can achieve true vulnerability and transparency which are so necessary for any of us to effectively learn. This is where true development happens and where wisdom is found.
2. Development is an Expectation
Leaders are increasingly expected to demonstrate that they are undertaking significant professional development. Culturally, we have come to expect that individuals who are responsible for the wellbeing of other people are seeking to grow and learn. We’ve seen enough leaders make mistakes that get plastered on the internet. We ask ourselves “how did they get it so wrong?” or “how did they lose their moral compass?” And deep in our hearts we wish someone had led them away from their decisions. Organizations everywhere are expecting their people to grow, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find someone to help us do so! We need more options of helpful mentors who can provide helpful insight into the real issues school leaders are facing and the essential dispositions needed to successfully lead others.
3. The Whole Organization Benefits
Imagine if each member of a faculty or staff were able to make 1 to 2 degrees of positive change over the course of the next six months. Imagine If you and your entire team were exposed to independent, unbiased, objective, advice and guidance. These small degrees of individual change would be rewarded with the following:
- The entire organization would become more productive.
- The overall quality of work among faculty and staff would rise along with customer satisfaction.
- Faculty and staff would also grow in their commitment and in satisfaction with operational and management staff.
- Staff retention would improve with staff seeing themselves move closer to who they want to become and by the overall work environment improving.
- Your people and stakeholders would have visible evidence that the organization is committed too developing and improving. When individuals grow, the organization becomes an overall healthier place.
When the organization is a healthy and positive place to work, the individuals grow, and the cycle continues to benefit itself.
4. You Are Guaranteed to Grow!
For individuals, the benefits are many. An effective mentor relationship will help people:
- Avoid making mistakes and learning from the ones they do make.
- Achieve more, in less time by helping an individual learn how to strategize and action vision.
- Minimize current problems, because a mentor can help foster mindsets and strategic thinking necessary to do so.
- Effectively prepare for potential difficulties that the individual may not even know are on the horizon.
- Achieve greater happiness with their personal and-or work life.
- Set realistic and helpful targets as well as hit those targets.
In a constantly changing world, each of us have a choice:
1. Simply survive and set our sights on making it through the day.
2. Courageously lead by seeking wise counsel and implementing it into our daily lives.
Most of us would choose the latter, but it’s hard to lead when you don’t know the way. Imagine you and the people you’ve been entrusted to lead are in a maze. You’re ahead of them and can see around the next corner, but you don’t know the way out. Everyone is relying on you, because you can see further than anyone else, but your vision is still limited. Now imagine the relief you’d feel if someone came alongside you with a map. This person would become your guide, your help, your mentor. MentorPond believes in the power of mentorship and that’s why we create customized coaching and mentoring engagements that focus on both the beliefs and behaviors of great leadership for aspiring educational leaders. We guide aspiring leaders and teams that want to grow and add value to the organizations they serve, because we believe everyone needs a mentor.