By Marsha D. Link, PhD, Link Consulting

As the holidays approach, many of us will be reflecting on the past year and determining what has mattered most to us in our personal and professional lives. Hopefully, each of us will savor the season by taking time to think about what has gone well and what we might want to change or improve as 2012 knocks at the door.

One important concept to think about is how we can avoid “brain drain” in the coming year, both in our work and in our personal lives. Focusing on ways to build “brainpower” that will increase our competencies, confidence, and impact is a gift we might give ourselves during this holiday season.

One way of increasing our brainpower is to initiate and develop a strong mentoring relationship with someone special who can be appropriately supportive, but also challenge us to move to the next level in our development.

In the recent past, OWL created a mentoring program for the members that will facilitate this kind of relationship. Several of the OWL members are already engaged in the mentoring program; others have applied, either to be a mentor or mentee, and are awaiting an appropriate pairing with another individual.

In addition to the mentoring program, which assumes that a long-term relationship will be created, OWL has also initiated a “coaching” program that is more time-limited and topic-specific for those persons who might want a shorter relationship targeted to deal with a specific topic or situation. For details on both programs, please visit the OWL Website where you will find a description of and applications for the programs.

Mentoring has been used in countless ways for many years. Thus, the definitions of mentoring are numerous and the expressions of a mentoring relationship are varied.

The word “mentoring” is derived from the Greek word that means “enduring.” Thus, an important part of the mentoring relationship, as well as the potential impact of it, has an enduring quality. I also like the description from John C. Crosby, a former politician from Massachusetts, when he declared: “Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.”

Currently, mentoring is becoming increasingly popular in the workforce and is not only a process used for professional development, but for personal growth as well. The unique definition of mentoring depends upon the context and situation.

When Heather Ready and I first developed OWL’s mentoring program, we wanted to define it as a joint venture in which the mentor and mentee take equal responsibility for developing a reciprocal, trusting relationship that produces growth, new learning, and continuous improvement. This definition embraces OWL’s mission of “Delivering Value, Rewarding Achievement,” and is in sync with its core principles of leadership, advancement, and community.

Let’s consider three important reasons why mentoring matters.

1) None of us is “fully cooked,” even if we have achieved a top position in our profession.

As women who have successfully navigated many of the hoops in order to become a professional, we are aware of the necessity of developing knowledge, skills, and substantial experience if we want to achieve our goals. However, as human beings, few of us fully use or achieve our potential.

Those of us who are advocates of continuous improvement recognize the importance of not only keeping our skills current, but upgrading our knowledge and abilities to ensure that we have a competitive edge and are developing those qualities that will increase our impact.

Frederic Hudson, PhD, one of the founders of the Fielding Graduate University, where I earned my doctorate, was a strong advocate of lifelong learning. His definition sums up the idea that we are never fully cooked.

He said, “Lifelong learning is the development of human potential through a continuously supportive process which stimulates and empowers individuals to acquire all the knowledge, values, skills, and understanding they will require throughout their lifetimes and to apply them with confidence, creativity, and enjoyment in all roles, circumstances, and environments.”

What better way to achieve lifelong learning that to be involved in a stable and productive mentoring relationship that will support the development of our potential? Indeed, this matters!

2) The only thing of which we can be certain is that change is constant.

One can look at many contexts in life and realize that change is all around us . . . and it is constant. If we only consider the revolutionary changes that the internet has brought us, we can appreciate the enormity of change and how it impacts our lives, both personally and professionally.

Setting technology aside, there are numerous other changes that we face in our work environments: workforce reduction, staff turnover, restructuring/reorganization, and financial pressures that restrict the resources available to do our work. In such environments, it is important to have a stable relationship with someone like a mentor to use as a sounding board, especially when that mentor does not have the power or authority to evaluate our work. Having a person to serve as a safe sounding board, with no fear of reprisal, is a rare and precious gift . . . and it matters!

3) Women helping women will increase the quantity and quality of leaders in our respective professions.

During the first two Executive Roundtable events that OWL has sponsored, we have focused on women leaders (and lack thereof) in the ophthalmology space. While there are myriad reasons why we still see a paucity of women in leadership roles, one of them happens to be the lack of effective mentoring for women.

In the 2010 Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, “Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women,” authors Ibarra, Carter, and Silva discussed a study of more than 4,000 high-potential men and women. What they found was that women have more mentors than men, yet women are less likely to advance in their careers in their respective work environments.

Further analysis revealed that women are not mentored in the same way as men; men are more likely to be “sponsored,” which means that they are not just given feedback (which is an element of mentoring), but are actively “sponsored” by increasing the mentees’ visibility, fighting for their protégés to get placed on important projects and committees, and intentionally facilitating efforts to ensure promotions. Why not proactively seek a mentoring relationship with a woman or a man, where the kind of “sponsorship” described in the HBR article is possible? Creating this kind of effective mentoring relationship matters!

At this holiday season, why not consider becoming a mentor or a mentee? Why not give yourself the gift of hope and promise for a bright and fulfilling 2012 by creating a trusting, strong relationship that can keep you on the path of “becoming your best!”

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December 2011 eNews