Mentorship is the relationship between a master and a student within any given profession or art. The object of a mentorship program is for such a master to accompany and instruct the student for the purpose of imparting necessary knowledge and skillsets necessary to the student’s success within that profession or art. The purpose of this article is to highlight the reasons why mentorship is important.
Mentorship Predates Recorded History
Accounts of mentorship reach back through all of recorded history in various forms and is found in association with most arts and occupations. Perhaps one of the most ancient and persistant form of mentorship occurs between father and son, mother and daughter and other in-family relationships. Family trades and occupations were naturally passed down from generation to generation. From this fact alone, mentorship has always been regarded a critical staple in the success and continuation of the family occupation or business. Mentorship has always been present in religious groups, in the form of a guru in Eastern religions and an elder in Christianity. Mentors, under specific names and titles can be found in militaries, occupational settings, arts and crafts and business. From the dawn of recorded history, above and beyond the family, these settings have all been a part of humanity as well, and all have seen the sheer value off having mentors within their protocols.
Mentorship in Modern Times
That we find mentorship within all cultures and societies today, even in less civilized ones, attest that it is of utmost importance and regarded as imperative to continuation, growth and success. The appilcations of mentorship from earliest times have not changed, and in fact, has grown with techology and sciences to become essential elements in each new field or disciplne that arises. Mentorship can be found in just about every thriving, large corporations as advisers see fit within interdepartmental structures, where appointed experts take on the task of accompanying new and prospective professionals within each department. As in ancent times, mentors (or masters) within martial arts take on recruits, drilling, excercising and altering personal lifestyles of their students on a one-to-one basis. The same holds true for militaries, as is true with drill sargents and their recruits.
The Nuts and Bolts of Mentorship
A timely concept that it is, mentorship is an extremely effective tool used in any venture requiring mastery. Very often a mentorship relationship consists of a one-on-one arrangement – a master and a learner. The job of the mentor is training the learner which, in most cases serves as the intended extreme challenge it takes to help the learner master the tasks at hand, physically, emotionally and spiritually. This can become a love/hate relationship between the mentor and learner, for the mentor, the frustration it can sometimes be getting the learner to grasp concepts and tasks, and for the learner, the apparent lack of friendship, or in better terms, the insenstivity often shown by the mentor.
The mentor has one goal for the learner – to make that person proficient in the discipline and to help the learner realize and achieve the goals as quickly and efficiently possible. Often the learner feels belittled and intimidated by the discipline and coaching given by the mentor. As a learner going into any particular discipline must be ready to accept the hard work and position he/she finds themself.
Rewards comes when the learner has reached new levels in mastery in the sea of unknowns and frustration, many drawbacks and seemingly unsurmountable goals. For the master, rewards are the successful turn-out of the new levels though effective and time consuming discipline directed toward the learner. Often the mentor appears cold and calloused toward the learner in the intent of separating perceived relationship of friendship which would take away from the force of the instruction itself, as it has been said that a mentor cannot be that and a friend at the same time which would diminish the effect.
Mastering the Discipline
Discipline here means the actual course of instruction and drills involved in mastering the objective. Therefore, the objective itself can be seen as the discipline in itself. Mastery involves commitment and dedication to learning the trade or art that isn’t easily learned in just a few settings, and doing so to the completion of all the basics involved at minimum. This takes patience and of course, dedication. In any one thing that takes mastery, only a very small percentage make the grade. This knowledge can help decrease the likelihood of failure with the understanding that there will be tough times ahead and that plateaus and even setbacks will occur, that those without may not be prepared for such setbacks and fall along the wayside.
A plateau is the condition of stagnation or the apparent sense that one isn’t getting anywhere or anywhere fast. Periods like this are common along the journey of achiving strenuous goals. Also to be expected are fall-backs when loss of ground occurs along the journey. This can be in having to relearn, retrain and regain footholds in things already having been accomplished. These conditions certainly cause the unwary to become disenchanted, frustrated and to give up on the discipline altogether. It is extremely important that anyone attempting to master difficult objectives to understand that such setbacks are normal and comes with staying in the game. Far too often individuals give up just before they have made the grade.
This is one of the mentor’s responsibilities – to help the learner stay on track through coaching and encouragement. However, it is not the mentor’s job to hold the learner’s hand throughout the entire course. There is a time when the training wheels need to come off the bicycle. The learner must go about the objective on his own, without the aid of the mentor. Failure to do so will likely bring about failure for both the mentor and the learner wasting valuable time and energy on both sides.
Mentorship is extremely important in the lives of those trying to master difficult objectives. It greatly increases the likelihood of success if the mentor does the job carefully, having the success of the learner always in mind. Most any worthy ideal takes mastery, including entrepreneurship and business ventures. This is true, even for employment, though not so pronounced as in the former. Range of difficulty varies from fairly easy to extremely difficult.