013 :: August 11 – 17, 2013
I often get asked what the difference is between Mentoring, Consulting, Tutoring, Advising, and Teaching, and I have a few peppy (yet substantive) answers to provide. Now, I wonder if when this question comes by email if I shouldn't simply redirect those asking the question to this wonderful 'quick guide to mentoring'. To be fair, mentoring is a difficult and deeply involved process, but the writing by Mary C Schaefer over at Lead Change Group in her entry 'Instead of giving advice, try this' does seem to cover some key mentoring tactics and paradigms of thought we adapt as we work to guide those we mentor. Get a look inside what we do at Mentoring the Masters and how we do it by reading the entry here:
http://leadchangegroup.com/instead-of-giving-advice-try-this/
I try to be mindful when writing these newsletter updates. Though I was a successful private business consultant in the past, Mentoring the Masters is not some company that mentors people as they build a business. Rather, if that is what someone I am mentoring envisions their legacy to be, I certainly use all my tools to mentor them along that path. My point is, I don't wish to have it appear that everything is about starting a business or a nonprofit – in fact, I may lean a bit heavily on the example where 'a former CEO wants to travel the world and paint but can't get over a feeling that the idea is foolish'. I mention all this, because this next entry has a lot of 'Top Performing CEO / Effective Employees' language. Having said that, there are some deep insights for use in Legacy development here worth considering. The article is titled “At Work, Giving is the New Getting” and while it discusses profits, it's really about the many levels of success which are attained when charity, generosity, and altruism are applied to collaborators. Note that I didn't say 'at the office' or 'coworkers'. When you see those phrases in the article, try to replace them with more situation-neutral ones. Perhaps then you will get the significant value I did from the piece, which is available in it's entirety here:
http://www.theglasshammer.com/news/2013/08/16/at-work-giving-is-the-new-getting/
Finally in our 'official posts', around June 15 I posted an Aspen Institute Ideas Festival 2-way interview between Arriana Huffington and Walter Isaacson discussing The Franklin project and a national 'Service Corps'. Now I'd like you to consider another interview of someone with a similar project. Steven Colbertson is the CEO of Youth Service America, and he is building a legacy of developing world changers by asking them to take on a year of service. Also covered is how Mr. Colbertson defines success – a theme in many of the interviews conducted during the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival. Hear more about this inspiring work by watching the brief interview here:
http://on.aol.com/partner/hp-live-segments-517394847/videoId=517834691
For an 'unofficial' fourth link of the week, I'd like to provide and interview between Phil Jackson who wrote the book on leadership and coaching '11 Rings'. Seeing as how I recommended an article discussing the book, I thought it couldn't hurt to provide the interview. I might not have caught all the sports references, but the leadership discussion was impressive. Enjoy the interview if you haven't yet seen it by going here (but beware – since it's online and direct from the Daily Show, Jon Stewart briefly uses some foul language):
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-may-21-2013/exclusive---phil-jackson-extended-interview