Mentoring for Leadership: Mentoring is the Job of Me, You and Everyone!

We are more than halfway through this Program Year, and it is time for all of us to step up, if we have not already done so, and help at least one member navigate the waters of our organization.

Have you found someone to mentor? Are you the one who wants desperately to be trained, but no one has approached you? Both issues are easily solved. All you must do is go to your next meeting and when reporting occurs, speak up! Speak up to offer your counsel or speak up to ask for help in becoming an involved and willing working member of the Auxiliary.

Suggest a fun activity to your President before your next meeting and find a way to get these two groups together. Put the names of mentors or potential mentees on strips of paper, toss them into a hat (or bowl, or box or whatever is on hand.) Mentors select a mentee or vice versa. Encourage the mentors and mentees to get together outside of the meeting and see what happens. Invite them to see what you are working on and decide if it interests them also. It may not be for them, but at least they will get a glimpse at what the mentor does and an opportunity to decide.

Mentors, the responsibility is for you to share. New members do not know what we are all about. Show them the ritual and explain why we follow it. Describe what is included in a meeting set up. Even if your Auxiliary does not do floor work, the Podium Edition Bylaws and Ritual outlines where flags are to be located and the order in which they are placed. Additionally, assist mentees to activate their MALTA profile and help them locate MALTA Member Resources. Take one step at a time but keep training.

Mentoring is a never-ending job. We teach someone, they learn and later become the teacher. New members may not know the organization yet, but they may be the experts we need for a future position. As I have said before, we are not going to live forever. If we don’t find the next Officer or Chairman, then all our knowledge dies with us, and we have failed the future of our organization. Make it an easy transition for the next member elected or assigned to your position. Let it be said that we have prepared our future Auxiliary for success, not failure. Your brain is filled with information others need to learn, so don’t wait; mentor someone today!