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Know Thyself: Put Your Best You Forward.
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How to Be a Smart Protégé: Building a Mentor Network
August 25, 2009 | Author: Promise Phelon | Filed under: Mentoring, The Networking Habit
I was leaving my favorite hotel in NYC last week, grabbed the Wall Street Journal and read it end-to-end on the taxi ride to the airport.
Somehow, I missed the story How to Be a Smart Protégé which is a fascinating assessment of the intersection of career success, likability and mentorship. So, sitting in Terminal Four at JFK, I read the piece which reaffirmed one of my strongest beliefs: there is no question that you need a mentor network—a group of people more seasoned in an area or discipline and willing to help you grow in that area by actively mentoring you.
Key Take-away (eight tips, four were especially good):
- Talk first and often—make the first moves and proactively keep in touch. UpMo says put in on your calendar and provides an Action Plan that integrates with your prioritized network to manage this.
- Do your homework. Be prepared, be proactive. UpMo helps you stay on-track with your network and keep abreast of relevant news and issues that they care about.
- Make relationships mutually beneficial. Duha, duha! UpMo says make the greatest investment in your network before you need it. Check out our Networking study that surveys several hundred professionals and uncovers secrets of the elite, high-earners: Download here.
- Be personable. UpMo encourages you to develop your personal brand and enhance your likability. Also, take notes from personal branding expert Rajesh Setty, a trusted UpMo advisor.
Favorite Quotes:
- Savvys lean on people without thinking of it as a burden—instead, they see it as a chance to build bridges. That attitude puts them and the other person at ease.
- I found that people that are most successful in business actually realize that asking for help gives people the opportunity to help you. It earns you a huge amount of respect in the workplace.
I grew up as a smart protégé—I thrive on key advisors, access to thinkers / leaders. In our research of UpModels, these qualities of likability, openness, seeking of support, collaboration and ideation, and advice-seeking were prominent. This article is an essential read and the attributes are ones you should evaluate in yourself or identify in someone you’d like to emulate. Personally, I believe that you need more than one or two mentors; try as many as you can manage, perhaps 7-10 active mentors.
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