FC Member Blog

Nonsense At Work

BY James McIntosh | 05-10-2010 | 6:42 AM

This blog is written by a member of our blogging community and expresses that member's views alone.

Meddling with mentoring:

Are you mentoring or meddling? Here’s how you can tell.

You are a mentor if you are using your experience to guide someone who is less experienced. The aim is to help the less experienced person play a 'better' role or to lead a 'better' life.

There you have the catch. What does 'better' mean?

And that’s where meddling comes in. You meddle when you try to change or to control what you see as wrong or inappropriate in the other person's life.

On the other hand, you mentor when you support the other person as events nudge her into making meaningful life choices, appropriate to her situation and circumstances, not to yours.

Some people believe that you can only mentor if you have already mastered. Don’t you believe it. We teach best that which we have yet to learn. In other words, to be a good mentor, what really matters are the mistakes you are still making.

I’m James McIntosh at nonsenseatwork.com

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