"mentoring is one of the most important tools"

I think Mary's acknowledgment on the importance of mentoring should occur more often. We all can think back, if we take the time, to an important decision and to who helped us. The one thing they were able to provide was a third parry view. They were able to express what they saw the decision as. In the middle of the decision and the dozens of factors around it, we did not have the ability to step back to see what was going on so clearly as they could provide.

Everyday decisions do not need a mentor, but our big decisions do benefit from one.

With this in mind, review the interview with Mary Dolaher, CEO of IDG World, and see if you find something else to take away from her experience.

persuasive leaders

Persuasive leaders are those who use conviction and reason to guide others to adopt an idea, attitude, or action. They make their pleas personal and tangible, ensuring there is a high degree of authenticity when communicating their wants and needs to others. They understand that a problem well defined and grounded in experience will gain higher acceptance and greater cooperation from others. Therefore, they relate their experience and understanding of the problem before explaining or exploring the solution.

From the Randy Emelo's Masterful Mentoring newsletter.

Honorary Board of Directors

This was originally posted at Joyful Jubilant Learning
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In this month’s celebration of men I would like to acknowledge the male members of my inspirational and honorary Board of Directors. Yes, sometime I’ll reveal the female members. It is only fair to provide equal attention. This time is for the men. If there are modern day heroes, these are ones that have worked for me.

The first, without question, is my father, Gerald Sherlock. Recording and sharing his life story is one of my projects. It has been on the back burner while Franklin Matters took some priority but time will be allocated to swing back to Jerry’s Story. I have recordings to edit and many pieces of the story to follow upon. Jerry has a few more years to talk about as we are just getting into the 1950’s when I came along into his and mother’s life.

Representing the athletic endeavors I attempt from time to time:

Bill Bradley The former Senator from NJ, the former forward for the NY Knicks. I read with great interest his story as told in John McPhee’s book “A sense of where you are”. The tips and tricks that Bill used drove my basketball preparations.

Edwin Moses between 1977 and 1987, he won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races) and set the world record in his event four times. Edwin was superbly prepared for each race. He also advanced the technique in the intermediate hurdles becoming the first man to stride between in only 13 steps. I attempted the hurdles but was no where near as successful as he was. None the less, he was a great inspiration.

Representing the poetic writing I attempt:

Robert Bly I first saw Robert when I was a student at Assumption College. My work study job assignment was to video tape the lecture series on campus. I’ll never forget his reading when he tried on his “death mother” mask to read his poem, “Counting Small Bone Bodies”. The horror of war was made more horrible with his remarkable performance.

Billy Collins He created the paradelle as a parody and inspired me to create sherku. You can read more about Billy’s influence on the origin of sherku here. I had the opportunity to meet Billy a couple of times at the Dodge Poetry Festival, once getting an autograph of his for an important person.

Representing business inspirations:

Kirk Weisler – I encountered Kirk at a Help Desk Institute conference. I was attending a full day session on metrics and reporting. His full day session was next door and they were having way-too-much-fun. I needed to find out more about who that was. I didn’t need to wait too long. He was part of the conference welcome session and did a skit mimicking Forest Gump. I juggled my prepared schedule to attend one of his track sessions and have been an admiring follower since. His Thought for the Day (T4D) is well worth the daily dose of an email.

Mark Hurst – One of the more interesting folks I found early on in my blogging days. I found his newsletter and subscribed learning all about “good experience”. This resonated well with me as I had been striving for that in my own work. I managed to attend his conference, Good Experience Live in 2005 and have also managed to attend each one since then.

Representing new media aspirations:

Chris Brogan & Christopher S Penn – In social media, Chris and his good buddy, Christopher S Penn, have few equals. Chris had let Rosa Say know about the first PodCamp Boston. Rosa posted the notice on Talking Story where I found it. Now, for an unconference, a free conference on podcasting, to be held here in Boston… well there was no chance I was not going to be there. I signed up on the wiki, and volunteered to work at the registration desk with Sooz. I met Chris there, attended his session and have been helping with PodCamp Boston since then. Christopher S Penn, is a co-founder of the PodCamp movement. From that first weekend, the PodCamp movement has continued to grow and evolve to be held around the world. If you wanted, you could attend a couple of events a month. Through Chris and Chris, I have been exposed to new technology and how it can be applied. I have been exposed to so many people doing really good work that I don’t believe I could have accomplished as much alone. In fact, much of the technology I share with this JJL Community comes from Chris and Chris either directly or indirectly via the connections they enabled.

Representing the teacher training education I received during my college days:

Mike O'Shea, who had a passion for Irish literature and theater
Joe O'Brien, who has a passion for teaching and process
Robert Cormier, who had a passion for running and exploring limits

These teachers were all associated with Assumption College, my alma mater. They have moved on from this world but I am sure they are continuing to inspire from where they are watching over us.

I feel honored to have been able to work with and learn from these individuals; most directly, some indirectly. I can return the honor in two ways: one, with this public acknowledgment of their place on the honorary Board of Directors; two, with my own daily performance. If I do what I need to do, I should be able to reflect something of them in all that I do.

Do you have a "Board of Directors"? Who would be on it?

Knowledge networks

I am on the ad-hoc Mentor Steering committee at work. I had the opportunity to met with others of like interest around mentoring on my recent Denver trip and picked up this link to three key skills for survival today and forward.

• Knowledge synthesis: This, in fact, is the skill of the future. With search technologies bringing us more information than we can possibly assimilate into productive action, we are more in need of the ability to merge concepts into a new, comprehensive understanding.

• On-demand learning: This is pivotal to fulfilling the knowledge-sharing needs of today’s top executives. To meet the demand, successors require highly tuned skills in cultivating multiple developmental relationships concurrently, and they need the freedom to access mentor resources.

• Global reach: This is essential for commanding mastery of top enterprises. The Web can bring the world to our desktops, yet many people still rely solely on temporary cross-cultural assignments to build this awareness. It is possible for successors to have diverse cross-cultural relationships without leaving their offices.

The full context for these three bullets can be found here.

How do these talk to you? Do you agree or disagree?

Curious to know. Drop me a line to explore further.

Rapid Fire Learning - May flowers a blooming

Yes, it is that time again; time to look back at what learning opportunities there have been this wonderful month of May. April Groves kicks off this event at Joyful Jubilant Learning with the following loaded clip from the latest Rocky. Loaded because, well if you haven't seen this Rocky yet (and I haven't) Stallone has a bunch of quotable lines packed into this 2 minute clip:



So what have I learned this month?

1 - Focus: there are so many opportunities, paths to follow, I need to prioritize and follow one. I can not continue to be as spread about as I am. I have enjoyed the variety but there is only so much time to go around. Stay tuned as you will see the results of the forthcoming decision some time in the next several weeks.

2 - Community: the importance of community was reinforced multiple times this month. SOBCon08 was a rewarding experience meeting so many folks that had only been words on a blog, or email, or tweets. These words now took on a bodily form, fleshed out into a real personality with such rich layers to explore.

3 - Mentoring: a special form of learning environment somewhat related to coaching but without the monetary transaction. I am on the steering committee for the company's internal program. The recent trip to Denver to met with others using the same software application to manage the matching and relationship process brought new connections and reinforcement of key concepts (like community).

4 - Commencement: my oldest daughter graduated this month. Going back to my alma mater some 32 years after my own graduation brought back all kinds of memories and re-opened areas of thought into a different light. A significant milestone, one that was well prepared for, but awakening none-the-less when it finally arrives. A trigger to the sense of focus and community discussions stirring in my gray matter.

5 - Fear: living on the edge. I learned many years ago (as a substitute teacher) to harness the butterflies when speaking in front of a group. There is good energy in that fear. Harnessing it can produce wonderful results; some planned for, some not quite so planned for. Life is not fully planned (i.e. Rocky's clip) it happens when you take action. It happens in reaction to your actions. Living on the edge is a constant adjustment. "We always have to be scared to death," said project manager Barry Goldstein. "The minute we lose fear is the minute that we stop looking for the next problem." Quote source.

This does not mean that I am strapping on a para-glider and looking for the nearest cliff. It does mean I'll taking some daring steps.

What have you learned? What will you do with your learning?