Helping Others Helps Your Performance

The other day I had the pleasure of meeting with a recent graduate of Clemson University.  He is the son of one of our best "couple" friends.  I say couple friends because too often when you're married there are "his" friends and "her" friends and each of you put up with the respective spouses.  In this case it is true couple friends.  But I digress.

He asked that I help with his resume.  Being a recent graduate there wasn't a lot on the paper when it came to work experience.  I needed more information so we have a couple of beers and we chat about his experience in college.  We talked about "who" he knew.  His network consisted of the people in the Fraternity he belonged to, their parents, friends of his parents (that's me) and school employees (profs, etc.) - basically, anyone who knew him and could influence his job search.  We talked about getting in to Linkedin and other social sites (imagine - me an old guy telling  a college kid to use the internet.)  At least he knew enough to take down the pictures from the last "kegger" on his Facebook site.

We talked about picking the city he wanted to live in and doing a search for companies that looked like places he'd like to work.  We talked about segmenting that list into the ones he wanted most and then putting a plan together for targeting them.  We talked about setting small goals each day instead of waking up each morning and saying "today I need to get a job."  Instead it was "today I make three calls to people who know someone at one of my target companies."

We talked about following up and setting interim check-in dates to assess progress.

In other words, we talked about a performance program that ends with him getting a job.

When I got up the next morning I realized - why don't you take your own advice?  Sit down and put your list together, set interim goals, follow up, etc., etc.

The act of being a mentor reminded me and motivated me to do the exact same things that I was "pontificating" about the previous night.

Here's the point of the post.

When you want to get something done in your current position - go mentor someone about a business problem.  You not only will help  them - you will help yourself.

PS:

... if you have an entry level position for a Marketing major with a great personality, great character, desire to learn and can build rapport with anyone - anytime - let me know - I got a candidate for you.  Email me.