156Eagerness to Learn
Make sure your associates become avid and ongoing learners.
Teach them to value and seek additional training — on their own
or through the company. Dozens of public-seminar firms offer
one-day training programs on hundreds of topics that can start
your people on new roads to effective time management, problem
solving, goal setting, etc. Many on-site educational firms will
bring training into your organization tailored to the needs you
identify. Local junior colleges, colleges and private educational
institutions offer evening classes that can provide needed skills
inexpensively. However you choose to support your associates’
growth, nothing will assure your team’s ongoing growth better
than developing “professional students”!Movement Toward “Expert” Status
Effective mentoring results in the learner moving toward
expert status. As people learn, they become more than skilled
professionals — they start to become specialists. By being
mentored, people learn not only what they know, but also what the
person mentoring them knows. It was an invaluable education
process that paved the way for historical concepts like
“apprenticeship.” That concept transformed American business
200 years ago — and it can still do it today!Attitude of “Advocacy”
Whenever you mentor people, you show an attitude of
advocacy. It shows that you are on their side — that you want
them to succeed. And the wonderful thing about this attitude is
that it’s contagious. People who have been mentored are more
likely to mentor others. And so the circle grows.The Treasure of Mentoring ................................................................................
If you’ve participated in the mentoring process, you know that
it never really stops. The people who mentored you probably have
an honored place in your memory and life — just as you will for
those you mentor. Mentors are always mentors in the minds of
those they help.Coaching, Mentoring and Managing4
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