Editorial: Leading Leaders

Mentoring relationships help the mentor as much as the mentee.

By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 9/1/2005

A woman I’m friendly with at work aspires to be editor-in-chief of the magazine she works for as a senior writer and editor. Every now and then, she has an issue or question that she wants to bounce off someone who isn’t her boss. She and I talk about standing up for yourself and the things you believe in. And sometimes about cooling your jets and focusing on the most important battles.

We discuss the different perspectives of managers and employees. She might find it easier to hear from an objective source rather than her supervisor that managers can’t tell their employees everything. And she shares with me the uncertainty employees feel when they don’t think they have all the information. Which inspires me to talk to my staff and see if there’s something on their minds.

Her questions about editorial integrity, finding new story sources and presenting innovative ideas to higher-ups always force me to look at the way I do things.

We don’t have an official mentor relationship. But I feel I’m helping her to navigate her career, as well as helping the company grow stronger. And I’m better for it—not just a nice person, but a better editor, manager and leader.

Mentor Acuity
There are numerous reasons why you should actively look for people to mentor.

Someone mentored you to help you get to where you are today. This is a way of giving someone else that gift, of helping them gain the knowledge you have gained. And besides the good feeling of knowing you’ve helped someone, you’ve helped to ensure the success of your company—or perhaps the industry—by preparing tomorrow’s executives.

It’s a chance to find and help develop people who are a different race, sex, political affiliation, whatever. While someone who is not, say, a fortysomething white male gets to learn from an experienced leader, the white male—and his company—gets a perspective on business and life that he might not find elsewhere.

The greatest opportunity is to learn yourself. If you keep an open mind and a forward-looking viewpoint, a good mentor will learn as much as—or more than—the person he or she mentors.

Due Credit
Chain Leader would like to help you honor the person who helps you. Nominate this up-and-comer for the Protégé award.

The honor is part of our Chain Leader Execution Awards, which we will present at the Chain Leader LIVE conference in Dallas, Nov. 16-18.

The winner will be under 40 and ready to take the next step to executive leadership. The individual will have shown measurable achievement, strong leadership and great promise. He or she could be an important cog in your corporation or an entrepreneur. Last year’s winner was Jeff Sinelli, founder of Which Wich.

You know people like this. Perhaps they work for you or a competitor, they impressed you at recent conferences, or you eat in their restaurants at least once a week.

Tell us who they are and why they deserve this award. Drop me a line by Sept. 16 at the e-mail or snail mail address on the left side of this page. Keep it brief: under 250 words. We editors will read each submission, do some research and select the best. Then watch for the winner to be featured in the magazine, and come celebrate the award at Chain Leader LIVE.