What does it mean to be a mentor? This is a term that we toss around a great deal to mean a supportive relationship, but unless we have actually been involved in a formal mentoring relationship it is unlikely that we have thought in a concentrated way about what it means either to be a mentor or to mentor someone else. I myself have both been a mentor and been helped by my own mentor and would like to continue in mentoring over the course of my life because I find it to be a fundamentally rewarding activity with benefits for both individuals involved.
One national mentoring organization defines the mentoring relationship in the following terms:
A mentor is an adult who, along with parents, provides young people with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive example. Mentors are good listeners, people who care, people who want to help young people bring out strengths that are already there (www.mentoring.org).
Described in these terms, it is at first difficult to understand why anyone would not want to have a mentor and the kind of support that a mentor can provide. And yet many people choose not to have mentors. This is no doubt, for many, rooted in the belief that many Americans seem to have that if one does not "go it alone" then whatever it is that one accomplishes does not somehow count. Of course, this is not true, and the wise person is quite often the person who knows when to ask for help as opposed to when to try to go it alone.
Having a mentor can be especially advantages in the early stages of life and career. This is especially true, as this site suggests, for women and minorities who usually have far fewer role models than white men do, as Dagenais 1992 suggests. However, for anyone interested in a mentor - regardless of gender, age, or race, some of the same key questions should be posed. In deciding whether a person can serve as an effective mentor to another, that individual should ask hims...