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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to make time to mentor.

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Speaker 1: Many of us have been helped by mentors in our careers,

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Speaker 1: and we'd like to pay our gratitude forward. Like everything, though,

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Speaker 1: mentoring takes time. It's easy to shove it to the

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Speaker 1: bottom of the priority list when life gets busy. But

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Speaker 1: I think even busy people can make time to mentor. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: I hope busy people will make time to mentor for

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Speaker 1: a few reasons. First, I think it's important to show

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Speaker 1: that even people with full personal and professional lives can

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Speaker 1: contribute to the community. But let's admit a selfish reason.

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Speaker 1: Too few of us have so arrived that we can't

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Speaker 1: be helped by other people. The people you mentor early

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Speaker 1: in your career may go on to become fabulously success

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Speaker 1: full while you are still working, and it will be

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Speaker 1: great that they think fondly of you. So how can

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Speaker 1: you build this into your schedule. One of the best

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Speaker 1: things you can do is to be choosy about who

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Speaker 1: you mentor. Well, we do have time for whatever matters

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Speaker 1: to us. Time is ultimately limited. You can't mentor everyone,

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Speaker 1: so you want to mentor the people who will blossom

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Speaker 1: best with your help. You can definitely be strategic about this.

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Speaker 1: If you're in a desirable industry, and particularly if you're

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Speaker 1: in a position where you hire people, you will probably

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Speaker 1: get a ton of requests to pick your brain. This

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Speaker 1: is really a terrible image if you think about it,

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Speaker 1: and it can be easy to feel resentful about these requests.

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Speaker 1: So one of the best ideas I've ever heard for

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Speaker 1: people in this situation is to create a list of

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Speaker 1: frequently asked questions. Take half an hour or so this

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Speaker 1: week to create a document with the most common bits

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Speaker 1: of advice people ask you for. Send this list around

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Speaker 1: to anyone who asks to pick your brain, invite them

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Speaker 1: to read it, and then send you any follow up questions.

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Speaker 1: Here's an interesting discovery. Most people won't bother to follow up.

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Speaker 1: I have no idea why this is. I guess I

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Speaker 1: think people kind of hope that if they get a

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Speaker 1: coffee meeting with the right person, great things will just

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Speaker 1: magically happen. But in any case, by sending a list

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Speaker 1: of frequently asked questions around, you've been helpful. But now

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Speaker 1: you're off the hook. However, there will be people who

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Speaker 1: read your document and then follow up with intelligent questions.

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Speaker 1: Those people, by all means, meet with them. They're the

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Speaker 1: folks who are serious and are the best use of

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Speaker 1: your time. As for those meetings, feel free to make

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Speaker 1: them convenient for you. You might designate a time like

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Speaker 1: every other Friday morning for these sorts of meetings. Anyone

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Speaker 1: who asks can be put there. Limiting the time frame

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Speaker 1: makes it easier to make mental space for these meetings

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Speaker 1: rather than having any time be an option. You can

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Speaker 1: also have people come to you. Feel free to choose

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Speaker 1: whatever location minimizes your transition times, like the coffee shop

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Speaker 1: on the first level of your office building. You can

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Speaker 1: also look for ways to fold people into what you're

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Speaker 1: already doing. I've heard many creative examples over the years,

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Speaker 1: such as inviting mintees to go for a morning walk

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Speaker 1: or run with you, or sharing a ride to the airport.

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Speaker 1: Many years ago, one of my editors drove me back

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Speaker 1: to the side of Washington, d C. Where we both

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Speaker 1: lived from our office in Virginia. Most days, I tried

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Speaker 1: to keep her entertained in traffic, and she taught me

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Speaker 1: a lot while doing something that she had to do

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Speaker 1: every day anyway. Of course I saw her at work too,

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Speaker 1: and that's really the best way to fit mentoring into

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Speaker 1: your life. Ideally, you work with a lot of high

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Speaker 1: potential people that you'd like to see succeed. Ideally, these

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Speaker 1: are the sorts of people you're hiring. If that's the case,

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Speaker 1: then mentoring is really just part of managing every time

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Speaker 1: you work with someone, be generous and gracious with fee back.

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Speaker 1: Ask about their lives, ask about their desired career trajectories.

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Speaker 1: Look for ways to make opportunities for them. Because careers

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Speaker 1: are long and so are memories. Time strategically invested this

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Speaker 1: way will definitely pay off. So how will you make

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Speaker 1: time to mentor in the meantime? This is Laura, Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod

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Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Yeah Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts

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