Anne Sullivan was The Miracle Worker who made Hellen Keller the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree and become a celebrated author, political activist and lecturer. Iconic civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr formed a close bond with Dr Benjamin Mays, a distinguished African American minister and scholar who strongly nurtured and supported King’s ambitions for social change. Even the great Mahatma Gandhi had a mentor in Dadabhai Naoroji, a leader who helped start the Indian Independence Movement in 1857 and from whom Gandhi learned the importance of peaceful protests.
What did all of these renowned individuals have in common? Each reached his or her full potential and led extraordinary lives by having a mentor from whom they could learn valuable skills and lessons.
In doing your network marketing business, who is your mentor? Are you being a good mentor by being a good sponsor?
The Chief, Mr Pathman Senathirajah with his mentor, Dato’ Sri Vijay Eswaran
What is a Mentor?
A mentor is like a having a personal coach, teacher or counselor — one who helps you develop your skills and monitors your progress; compels you to perform but keeps you grounded; guides you to the right track but teaches you accountability; and, tells you what you need to hear and inspires you to do your best. According to this Success In A Cup blog post, “Mentors can save you from falling into common traps by pointing out things you may be too busy to notice.”
In network marketing, a mentor is someone who has achieved a considerable amount of success in the business and willingly shares his or her knowledge, experiences and resources with others to turn them into good leaders, and eventually into mentors too. QNET Executive Chairperson Donna Imson recently shared on her Facebook page the quote “True Leaders do not create followers… they create more leaders.” by J Sakiya Sandifer, a noted creative thinker and author. The quote succinctly explains how one builds a network of success.
What are the characteristics and habits of effective mentors?
Being a good mentor requires good coaching skills, the experiences relevant to the mentee’s circumstances and the ability to manage a reciprocal mentoring relationship. “The art of becoming a successful Network Marketing Mentor is to lead others by your own example and inspire them with your passion, vision, commitment and persistence,” writes Linda Cargill-Selfe in 4 Tips to becoming the best Network Marketing Mentor you can be!
You can learn more on the benefits of mentoring and on how to manage a mentoring relationship by reading the insightful article entitled Mentoring Skills – Using Your Knowledge to Help Others
Our own mentor par excellence, V Managing Partner Dato’ Sri Vijay Eswaran recently shared on his Facebook page a Huffington Post article entitled The 6 Habits of Highly Effective Mentors. Aside from giving insights on effective mentoring habits, it also stresses the thought that “There’s no one right way to mentor or be a mentor, of course. Different personalities and communication styles naturally make some mentoring methods more compatible than others. The key is always to find something that works with an individual’s unique situation.
So, if you see yourself now as a mentor, do you build leaders by practicing these effective habits? If you are a mentee, do you get the right kind of guidance from the right mentor at the right time?