Here's a question for you... Why do so many automotive professionals share highly valuable information, knowledge, contacts, documents, spreadsheets, presentations of various types, videos, photos and actual performance measurements with online automotive communities such as the http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com Professional Community? Well, speaking on behalf of yours truly, it is a passion of mine to pass along the wisdom and knowledge provided to me by my experience and from being taught by others, including the last generation of automotive professionals who were so generous with their time and wisdom when I started selling cars at the age of 23. Yes, on February 13, 2009 I celebrated my 28th anniversary of earning a living in the car business! One of the qualities I have always believed to be a great benefit of being in the car business is that so many people who are experienced and well trained are willing to pass along and share their knowledge and skills with newly hired "green peas", seasoned "car guy" veterans, or anyone willing to listen... Of course, sometimes there are people who wish they wouldn't be so generous!

I believe that many of us willingly and avidly share highly specialized knowledge because of the benefits we each receive from the mentoring process. By sharing our knowledge, we each become better practitioners and we reinforce what we have seen work, making it less likely that we will somehow fail to execute on a consistent basis. In this post i am placing several images that show many of the benefits from being a mentor... Are you a mentor? If you have assisted other ADM Professional Community members with information, messages, comments, responses or documents, then you certainly are a mentor of some sort, to a greater or lesser degree depending on the volume of your contributions... All too often when people think of the benefits of mentoring, they only look at what the "mentee" receives. In my opinion, when any of us get better at being a mentor, the benefits we receive from seeking to serve those people we agree to mentor far outweigh the investments we make in time and effort.

The message below is one of many I have been lucky enough to receive and get that warm and fuzzy feeling... You know, the spiritual fulfillment that comes from knowing that something good that you did has brought your karma back into balance, despite cutting off those 3 other cars when you almost missed your exit...

This one somehow struck a much more personal chord with me than most of the others I am fortunate enough to receive from time to time:

"Hi Ralph ~

Thanks so much for all your help with the information on BDC development. As of yesterday, I am the new Internet Director for the entire store; something long needed here. I used the job description you had posted and tweaked it to work within our dealership. I'm really excited about the growth that I know will come from this position, but more importantly I'm excited about working Monday - Friday again! Something I haven't done in years!! Being a single mom, it's been the incredible support from my wonderful children that allowed me the opportunity to establish myself in this industry and now they get to reap the rewards by having me home again on nights and weekends. It would certainly have been a lot more work for me if it hadn't been for your willingness to share your knowledge and your work. Again, thank you so much for all that you do to promote our industry. I will make sure we meet the next time I attend a Digital Dealer Conference. You Rock!!!

Sharon"

Shown below: Ralph Paglia's response to Sharon Davenport (after receiving the above message) 

"Sharon,

Thank you SO MUCH for your message! You have given me the reward that I live for... Knowing that I have been able to help someone in the car business with less experience than me. Sort of a "pass it along" feeling that was taught to me by a boss I had in 1983. I was in my first job as a GM and it was a store in the middle of a shithole desert town that smelled like fertilizer year round and nobody living there spoke English. Tom Lesard would come out every two weeks, flying his own souped up twin engine plane and teach me how to read financial statements and manage cash flows... About 6 months in he said to me "now that you are qualified to be a GM, we have to pay you more money... He doubled my salary and percentage! I asked him once why did he help me so much and his reply was "some day you will have the chance to help people younger and newer in the car business than you... All I ask is that you pass along what I have given you to the next generation of people coming into this business..." A year later I was back in San Diego managing a high volume store that Tom Lesard put me in charge of, when he crashed his plane with my F&I Manager and her dad and brother in it... They all died. To this day I try to help good people getting into this business in memory and honoring Tom Lesard. And, he may be reading your message right now from somewhere else, because I know he would be smiling!"

Thank you for mentoring me, Tom...

Ralph Paglia
http://www.RalphRPaglia.com
505-301-6369

The chart below is something I found online that is an interesting perspective on the roles and obligations of a mentor and likewise, the obligations of the person who agrees to be mentored, the mentee... I find this useful whenever working with someone as a mentor, or being mentored myself and seeking to define what each of us can expect from the other.

The chart below shows some interesting conceptual and functional differences between "<b>Collaboration</b>" and "<b>Mentoring</b>"... I think that most of us do not object to someone else, or maybe even willing to mentor Automotive professionals working at other companies,.. However, most of us would probably reserve collaboration for our coworkers, clients, family, suppliers and customers...

The matrix below shows how to organize your mentoring process based on using either (or both) phone and email... The obvious missing column is the one needed for what we now refer to as "Online Communities", User Generated Content (UGC) sites or what many people refer to as "Web 2.0"... Basically, interacting with other professionals and mentoring them, or being mentored via professional sites like the http://kainautomotiveideaexchange.ning.com and the http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com Professional Community

If you would like to check out more on the subject of professional mentoring and how to get the most from it, whether being in the role of mentor or seeking a mentor for yourself, I have listed a few relevant online resources and provided links below:

http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2006/061214/full/nj7121-966a.html

"Model Mentors" an article by Carina Dennis

http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2006/060413/full/nj7086-964a.html

"Mentoring Mismatch" an article by Kendall Powell

http://www.peelmentoringnetwork.com/index.html

The Peel Mentoring Network

http://www.menttium.com 

MAKE MENTORING WORK - improving professional performance through mentoring

Lastly, for those of us who seek the wisdom we believe we can gain from a mentor, let's always keep in mind the very popular cartoon shown below that is a commentary on the motivation behind the advice you are given...