The Gift that Keeps Giving: Mentoring

As a parent, our wish is rarely that our child will be a follower, but instead, we wish for our child to grow up to be a leader. All our lives we are encouraged to "step up", "lead", and "do for others," all components of leadership. The problem is that when we grow up to be a leader (we all are in some fashion), if we do not take someone else along for the ride, showing them the ropes, encouraging them to do the same, we leave an empty coffer at the end.

It is fine and good to lead a life full of achievement, but of these, when we mentor, we leave behind the greatest of monuments to our life. We leave the ability for our life, our leadership and our dreams to continue to be brought to fruition by and through others.

Mentoring is a grand and generous gift. It is also a gift to ourselves. When we reach inside to see what others need from us and we seek to see through their eyes we are granted a rare glimpse at ourselves where we see both the good and the bad. This two sided gift gives us the opportunity to become someone better and to acknowledge that which we do well already. Let's be honest, we are all our own worst critic, yet when asked, we rarely see ourselves to blame for fault in the world. Mentoring gives us the clarity to see that for which we are responsible, for the bad and the good around us. It gives us insight into our dreams again and opens new doors to try one more time to get something "right", or at least get it "better".

Our society screams for leaders, but few take the time to guide, to walk beside, or even behind another to build a new leader for when we are gone. It is important too to recognize that some of us are not meant to be a visible leader, but instead, to build them quietly. Teachers are the best mentors out there second only to parents. They mentor when they are least expecting to. The beauty is that we do not all need to be parents or teachers. We all have a chance to reach out and mentor in other roles.

Before I leave you today pondering how you can mentor in your lives, and before I introduce you to an amazing group of people who are endeavoring to build a mentoring program in the Leadership Department of Fort Hays State University, I would like to share a bedtime story.

Once upon a time, there was a class taught by the Crystal Princess. The Crystal Princess was a gentle and caring soul who encouraged her pupils to reach inside for the answers, not wanting something spewed back at her from a textbook. She encouraged discourse amongst her class and they accepted the challenge.

One day, there was a class that took this lesson to heart ever so much more than had ever been done. This class chose to bring the lessons to their real lives outside the classroom and they created lasting friendships that carried on long after class was done.

The Crystal Princess watched in awe as her fledgling pupils grew and flew to soaring heights. What truly brought her to joyful tears though, was their desire to share the gift they had found as a group with others. As she watched them reach out and share that gift, she knew she had achieved her dreams of teaching them a lesson greater than could ever be put into a book.