Do you have any examples of a good mentor or of a bad mentor

 Reply/answer in 200 words/10 sentences min

When I think of the word mentor, I think of someone who provides guidance or coaching. In the military we are highly encouraged (when you say that, it’s pretty much mandatory) to have a mentor and also to be a mentor to someone else. You’re a coach, guide and/or counselor to that individual with the sole purpose of helping them succeed in both their professional and personal life. This is an informal and ongoing process that consist of follow up and a genuinely vested interest in the mentee.

When I think of a facilitator on the other hand, I think of specific events that are held in an organization that require facilitating or having to facilitate a group or team. So instead of “guiding” a person, you might be guiding an event or group of people. This said, I believe the main difference for me is what is being guided; a person or an event or group of people. I think when it comes to managers, they are expected to facilitate more than mentor and if they mentor, that bridges more on a leadership role than a managerial role. Personally, I have picked up numerous mentors along my career.

I don’t think I can say I have one main mentor. I reach out to different ones for different reasons. I like this approach because picking just one mentor in my opinion seems forced and limited and from my experience doesn’t seem to work well. It is not something that should be forced and in the military I think that is the case sometimes with our mentoring program. If you are a true mentor, it should be natural, not forced.

Do you have any examples of a good mentor or of a bad mentor? Also, what traits do you think it takes to be a good mentor?