Time-travelling memories – Reflective Leadership
Photograph: Contributed
The original Mentor with his mentee, Telemachus, the son of Odysseus
I learned I can time vacation while sitting down at my desk.
As I scroll as a result of my faculty alumni Fb group, I am again in time, back in my small hometown.
When I go through posts from men and women a long time more mature than me and posts from my classmates’ young children, I am reminded of my formative yrs, and good friends, academics, neighbours.
I relive the seemingly profound situations — lapping Most important (road, that is), attending the yearly church picnic, standing as a wallflower at the region community corridor dances.
In these time-vacation wanderings, I gained the most touching gift. At any time.
In a recent write-up, my Quality 8 PE/Health and fitness teacher, John Pullen, talked about his mother and father.
John’s father, Jack, was the senior pharmacist in town, and was shut to retirement when I received the coveted occupation of operating at the drugstore when I was 12.
I was a cashier, a shipper/receiver. I stocked cabinets and established journal shows.
One particular working day, Mrs. Taylor was sick and I was promoted to the dispensary. There, I set tablet bottles into bags and stapled the prescription recommendations.
I vibrated with the newness of the assignment – rows of bottles, neatly labelled, were being shelved behind me even though I scanned the retail outlet from the lofty heights of the dispensary.
I positioned small, white luggage filled with capsules and liquid concoctions in alphabetical purchase beside the dollars sign up, ready for pickup.
The new obligation exhilarated me.
Mr. Pullen would convey to me about numerous remedies and how they labored, but he never talked about the people. He didn’t have to have to — my vivid creativeness concocted its have prognosis of anyone in city.
Mr. and Mrs. Pullen lived on the subsequent avenue – someway an nearly insurmountable barrier for my slim look at of everyday living. He would invite me to go to after function.
Following my two-hour, after-university change, I’d race property to consume and soar on my bike and ride to their grand, two-storey property.
As the second oldest of five kids, with doing the job mother and father, I experienced a lot of duty and small interest.
At the Pullens, I was the “golden-haired youngster.” They had 3 sons. The oldest two had gone off to college. The youngest son was so substantially more mature than me that I deemed him irrelevant.
About tea prepared by Mr. Pullen, the three of us would chat. They answered my youthful, sick-conceived queries. They endured my relentless curiosity. And I uncovered tales of their youth.
The Pullens understood of my insatiable wish to go to college. They employed me for odd work opportunities all over the home, chores wheelchair-sure Mrs. Pullen could not do. I hope I did them well.
Examining the Fb post about Mr. and Mrs. Pullen acquired me considering about the value of mentors.
The authentic mentor was named Mentor, the dependable mate of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey, who was billed with guiding Odysseus’ son, Telemachus.
- As leaders, we are billed with guiding our groups.
- As mom and dad, we are charged with guiding our kids.
- As group associates, we can choose to guide the youth, the considerably less privileged.



There are three roles that mentors fulfil:
- Guide. They share specialized knowledge.
- Counsellor. They listen, tutorial, and offer feed-back and tips, but not all the responses.
- Cheerleader. They share enthusiasm and celebrate successes, no make any difference how small.



As a leader, my most satisfying role was mentoring new agents. When I labored closely with newcomers as they acquired how to listing a residence or help a buyer discover a household, they would jump out of the nest into independence and autonomy.
This was the swiftest way to start their new career.
As a business mentor, one of my favorite recollections is a breathless phone from a single of my mentees. She was creating a residence-shipping provider and experienced branded her delivery van.
“I acquired a simply call from a person she stated she observed a person of our vans and preferred to know if we would produce to her. She does not know it, but we only have one van.”
Mentoring can go over and above the place of work to particular, profession, and group. A pal is mentoring an immigrant in the English language, introducing her to daily life in Canada, and getting ready the aspiring physician for her qualifying clinical tests.
According to Mentoring.org, young grown ups with a mentor are:

55% fewer probable than their friends to skip a working day of faculty
- 78% extra possible to volunteer frequently
- 90% fascinated in getting a mentor
- A whopping 130% additional probable to maintain a leadership position.



Sage.com cites the statistic that even though 97% of folks who have mentors consider mentorship is precious, 85% of them really do not have a mentor.
If we want to make a variance in a new business’ profitability, sustainability, and viability, we need to move up and be mentors – in particular in these unprecedented periods of company disruption.
Just one of my very first mentors was my previous manager who arrived to get the job done with me. Mainly because of his encounter and our marriage, I could burst into his business, eyes flashing. “I am going to fireplace them all.”
He would lean back in his chair and location his glasses on the desk. In his reduced, quiet voice, he would position me in an additional direction, training to be extra confident in my skills, to improve my leadership expertise. And not fire them all.
Yrs afterwards, Mr. Pullen passed, drained from several years of caregiving and dispensing medication. Mrs. Pullen flourished at the nearby seniors’ lodge.
I would pay a visit to her through my weekends household from university.
In reaction to my remark about my reminiscences of his moms and dads, my PE trainer wrote this:
“Yes, Myrna. They held you in good respect. I thank you pretty substantially.”
From my initially mentors from a long time in the past, two time-vacation items – a most surprising compliment and the wealthy life I am privileged to lead mainly because of their assistance.