Comments on: Mentoring

By: The Education Wonks

The Education Wonks — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 07:17:08 +0000

The Carnival Of Education: Week 22

It is in the spirit of Casablanca that we are pleased to present the twenty-second edition of The Carnival of Education.As with other editions, those entries that were selected by us appear at the bottom of the page. The aim of the carnival is to pre…

By: Open Loops

Open Loops — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 04:00:25 +0000

A Mentor Speeds up Learning

Mentoring is an effective learning acceleration technique

By: Bert

Bert — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 02:35:42 +0000

Steve,

Again, great post! I’ve been using the mentor/protege strategy for years to great effect. It can speed up the learning curve and help one avoid mistakes that others have made.

With me, mentors in public speaking, for example, are few and far between where I live in North Carolina, despite the fact that I’m in the third largest city in the state. Remote mentoring opens up a large world of potential mentors that do not exist in a local area. The personal computer (with an IM client), web cam, and a headset/mic provide the visual feedback in the form of facial expressions, vocal tone, and ability to see body language (admittedly to a limited extent), that some people need during coaching sessions.

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 18:58:22 +0000

@John: I’ve been to a number of “free to fee” workshops and continue to learn new ideas at each one. Darren LaCroix, the 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking, is doing a couple workshops here in Vegas next month. One is on dissecting a champion-level speech, which is free. The other is a 3-hour workshop on how to go pro, which costs $77. I’ll be going to both. Even with these resources available, it’s still plenty helpful to have someone who can show you the ropes as you go through the process yourself.

@in-search: Figure out what kind of person you’d want to have as a mentor, and then profile him/her as best you can. Where would you find such a person? What clubs or associations would they belong to? For example, if you want to find a business mentor, a good place to start looking would be the local Chamber of Commerce. People who make good mentors can usually be found as active members of some type of social group. Join it.

By: x-force - insomniac dependent de dulciuri

x-force - insomniac dependent de dulciuri — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 18:41:37 +0000

The article is good because it gives some details about how to find a menthor, what to propose him, etc. I know menthoring is good but I never knew HOW to find a menthor, how to work with him/her, what I can offer in exchange, etc.

By: in_search

in_search — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:40:24 +0000

Steve said: “To anyone else who finds themselves wanting to reach a goal but not being able to see the path clearly enough, I highly recommend finding a mentor.”

How do you go about finding a mentor? Especially if one’s current friends and aquintances are not the right person to be one’s mentor…?

By: John Richardson

John Richardson — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 14:03:53 +0000

Very interesting post Steve. I find myself in a similar situation. I want to move in the direction of becoming a professional speaker. The leap from Toastmasters to the NSA is a huge jump, requiring 20 paid speeches in a year to qualify. I found a great resource in the San Diego area that helps advanced Toastmasters make the jump from free to fee. Sheryl Roush puts together “In the spirit of speaking” seminars 3 or 4 times a year to help people get into professional speaking. I have attended two of these and they are very insightful.

Her website is sparklepresentations.com and she has many online resources for speakers. She has a graphics arts background and her specialty is “one-sheets.” You might want to contact her for information on an upcoming seminar.