Mentoring for Leadership: Making a Difference

Here we go – we are now on the downhill side of this Program Year. It is our job to help the newest officers elected and those appointed to new positions or Program Chairmanships. This is the final, but very large, piece of the puzzle.  

One Department Chairman, Sandy Bassett from Oklahoma, created a training video about how to NOT convince a new member to become the President, and then NOT train them. We have all seen it and we know that often we are so concerned about getting all the positions filled that we make promises to help them. By the end of the training everyone walked out to go do their own thing and there sat a newly elected President wondering where all those “mentors” went. Watching this happen certainly reminded me of my first Presidential Program Year, but at least way back then, I had mentors. At one meeting, the was a demonstration about who can be a mentor wherein the presenter walked around a meeting with a mirror facing the members; we ALL can be mentors.  

I have shared ideas through my promotions, blogs and at the National Mid-Year Conference. So many Department Chairmen have taken this Program to heart and have really tried to get you thinking like a mentor. It has been a Program Year of learning from others and also of training others.   

I have reminded you that mentors come in all types of packages: Male and female, young and old, longtime members and new members. We all want the same thing for this organization, which is to assist and serve our veterans and our communities. But closely following veterans and our community, we want the organization that we are proud of to flourish for decades to come. So, we are obligated to share our knowledge and accept the same from others. For many of us, mentoring is automatic while for others a little reminder that we have knowledge and experience to share can really motivate us to become a mentor. But in the end, we just want to leave this world a bit better than we found it. So, ask yourself this question: Did I make a difference in one person’s experience with the Auxiliary this Program Year? Did someone do the same for me? If the answer is yes, then you were successful. If you did not try to help someone through mentoring this year, start now for the next Program Year. 

Thanks for all you did to embrace this Program.