Imagine you are fresh out of college and starting your
career. Sure you have had jobs before but nothing that compares to this level
of professionalism. You work in a small office and myriad of concerns run
through your mind such as if you are dressed okay and how are you going to make
your mark and prove yourself. No one is in the office and you are left to
figure out your assignments alone to be critiqued later. It would be easy to
assume there is one right way and if you are left without direction that surely
it cannot be too complicated. Later you find out you spend hours going in the
wrong direction.
The scenario above is not far from what I experienced early
in my career as a Paralegal. Needless to say that one did not stick. Had I had
direction perhaps I would have been in a different place today. I felt it was
not my calling and that my talents could be used better doing something else.
For me, this is why having a coach and/or a mentor is
significant. A new employee, especially one that is beginning their career,
should not be left to take things on completely alone. I actually think about
the future and if I would be decent being a director or taking on a larger
leadership role. That future looks like a giant black hole in my mind so I
worry because I cannot picture it and I do not understand it. I keep forgetting
that now in my professional life that is highly unlikely that I would get the
job and be dropped into the deep end to swim on my own without training or at
least floaties.
Regardless what point I am in the career I can always do
better and make improvements. I have been so lucky since I began with ERAU to
have supportive colleagues around me. My Team Leader has always been a great
coach for me and all of the team members. We are lucky to have her. There is
one person who stands out when I think about my current career as a mentor which
is my friend and colleague, Jaime.
Right from the beginning I could count on her to give me
brutally honest feedback. I wanted to know without censorship and I found that
she could give that to me. In advising we have what we call the “One Year Click”
or that it takes one year for everything to fully make sense. I would worry
throughout the year if I was behind in my personal progress compared to
previous advisors. I tried to gauge this periodically and ask Jaime if I am
where I need to be. If she said I was in a good place I believed her because I knew
she would not hold back if there was something I needed to know and was seeking
the information.
I learned early on that my style of advising was quite
different than the other advisors. I will never the quickest advisor but I am
one of the most thorough and thoughtful. I was always encouraged to stay true
to what I was doing and own it. One of the interesting things about having a
mentor is that they can help you with checks and balances in your work so you
do not go too far into left field. Jaime always knew when to pull me back a
little bit or let me know that I was taking a risk if something was a little
too much.
I was able to grow quicker with her as my self-selected
mentor by bouncing ideas off of her than I could have on my own. I would say I
am her shadow in the best sense of the word. There was never a sense that I had
to reinvent the wheel because I had her knowledge as she paved the way for me
to come along just as I am doing right now for those who come behind me.
As Jaime prepares for the next part of her career I feel
like there is a sense of loss. While I will always be able to count her as a
part of my network this provides new opportunities. I can learn about a new
part of the university’s operations through her experiences and gain additional
perspectives through her insight. I also have the opportunity to work with
another self-selected mentor that can give me a different perspective than I
have right now. I am not sure who that will be but it is something I am looking
forward to having in the near future. I have passed the threshold where I am
not a “baby advisor” any longer and it is time for me to start to do the things
Jaime did for me with the other members. There is also a new stage of growth
needed in order to fully assume what it means to be a veteran member of the
team. While Jaime may not sit next to me soon, her knowledge and what she
taught me will not be lost because it will be passed through each of us. Her absence
does not mean the end of my learning or the conclusion of anything; it is
simply a new chapter.
I feel like all of the successes I have had are not mine
alone. They never could be because I have been influenced and strengthened by
my peers. I am keenly aware that I am made better because I have had them in my
life. There will forever hold an importance for coaching and mentorship for me
simply because I have been so lucky to have good people in my corner.
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