Leadership Activity

Unit VIII Mentoring Transcript

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Dr. Sonya Rogers: In this unit, we will discuss how leaders can set goals and

communicate effectively with workers to help them build in their

development skills as an employee. Dr. Hargadon, have you used any

mentoring techniques before or witnessed any that you thought was able to

enhance the growth of employees or help them perform better?

Dr. John Hargadon: Absolutely, I have actually been the recipient of some

really good mentoring, a master sergeant in the Marine Corps when I was in.

We actually followed each other through as I was in training, he was my

instructor, and then I went to Beaufort, South Carolina. And he came to

Beaufort, South Carolina, then I went back to Pensacola, Florida, he came to

Pensacola, so our careers sort of matched each other.

When we were in Beaufort, South Carolina, he was the section head. And he

got promoted to gunnery sergeant, and so he moved into a different job, but

he was still officially the section chief over the navigational aid section. So

what he did is allowed

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me, who was the next senior person, sort of to run the shop while he was off

doing the collateral duty that he had, given his new promotion. The extra

duty that he was in charge of doing. And so what he was able to do was

allow me, in some training evolutions and some low risk situations, sort of

make some decisions, make some mistakes.

Do some what we would call the debriefs after the training evolutions to sort

of say what went right, what went wrong, and then what might we be able

to do to improve moving forward. So that would certainly be a situation

where I think that the mentoring that I was provided at that time certainly

helped further my career in the Marine Corps and has stuck with me, even

as I've gotten out of the Marines and into the civilian world.

So mentoring really, in my opinion, is going to be a situation where someone

with more experience is going to take someone with

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less experience sort of under their wing. Provide them with opportunities to

make some decisions, to learn from some mistakes, and then communicate

with them on what went right, what went wrong. And as you make more and

more decisions, hopefully the number of mistakes decreases as you go,

which is going to increase your confidence as a leader, which is one of the

key attributes that a leader's going to need to have.

So mentoring is a fantastic way to develop others, particularly, we had a

saying in the Marines also that you are always training your replacement,

right? So as a leader, it's always important to be training someone, to be

able to do the job that you're doing. So that when you move up into a

different position or out into a different position, the organization has

somebody that can step in and fill that void, so certainly mentoring is a good

way to do that.

It's a good way to communicate what needs to happen within the

organization,

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and how the organizational vision can be accomplished.

Sonya: And some people may think, I don't need someone to hold my hand,

but at the same time, it's really not that. It's someone to be there to

brainstorm with, and to guide as needed. And I often tell people, be good to

the people who are beneath you, you never know when they will be above

you, and sometimes, that happens.

John: That's true.

Sonya: So it is good to have a person just to talk to and collaborate with,

and share ideas and then feel like you're working as a team, whether it's a

two-man team or a larger group. So, yeah, I agree very much with what

you've stated.

John: Thank you.