Today’s post about the STC Mentor Board was written by STC’s President Kit Brown-Hoekstra.
Remember when you were just starting out in the field? Did you have someone (or several someones) who took the time to answer your questions, give you constructive feedback, or just encourage you to stretch yourself? If so, now is your opportunity to pay it forward.
We often hear about the value of receiving mentoring and of having a good mentor, but we don’t often hear about the value of being a mentor. What does the mentor get out of the relationship?
After all, mentoring, depending on the situation, takes time and energy from other volunteer or work activities. Yet, many mentors stay engaged with their mentees throughout their careers. In other cases, the mentee needs specific advice about a specific problem, so the relationship is shorter and more specific.
For many mentors, the relationship has all the benefits of being a teacher with none of the paperwork and grading. Others want to give back to their profession because they benefitted from a great mentoring relationship early in their careers. Some want to keep the connection to the young people coming into the field, so that they can better understand that perspective. Still others find joy in watching someone grow and become excellent in their field.
Often, mentors get as much or more out of the experience as the mentees do, whether it’s an opportunity to practice coaching and leadership, a discussion on ethics or business politics, providing career path advice that makes you re-examine your own path, or just expanding your network.
Do you have any of these characteristics?
- a desire to make a difference
- interest in new members in the technical communication discipline
- an ability to coach and guide, while allowing the mentee to learn from their mistakes
- curiosity
- good listening skills
- an ability to ask good questions
- a recognition of how to challenge someone in a way that encourages their growth
- an expectation of excellence and an ability to bring it out in others
- respect for the learning process and for the mentee
If so, the STC Mentor Board needs you to be a mentor! The STC Mentor Board is up and running, and I would like to personally invite you to participate as a mentor because you have demonstrated leadership in STC and in the field of technical communication.
We would like to pre-populate the Mentor Board with mentors so that the students and young professionals have a variety of skillsets and perspectives to draw from. Mentoring can take as much or as little time as you and your mentee agree to. It only takes a few minutes to sign up.
Please join today at https://www.stc.org/education/1414-mentor-board. You can indicate your areas of expertise and the amount of time you are able to give. Then, mentees search the board for a good match, contact you, and you decide together what works best for both of you.
If you have any questions, please contact Sally Henschel at sally.henschel@mwsu.edu.