When I was 18, I volunteered to help with a local judging competition of ad agency work. I wasn’t qualified to be a judge. I was qualified to be the hostess for our out-of-town judges. I made a connection with one of the judges, Rich Flora, with whom I have since enjoyed a relationship which has evolved from career mentor, to vendor, to informal life coach, to dearest of friends for the last 24 years. What I learned from him about Dallas even had an influence over my decision to move here. Rich is a writing genius, yet I believe his leadership skills are his truest calling.

Rich taught me how to be a mentor, although I don’t think he knows it. Rich has asked me deep questions that make me really think. He leads me to make my own decisions, because only I know the answers to those big questions for myself. He never tells me what to do, but I walk away from our conversations wiser and ready to make my decisions. The leadership and mentoring skills he has shown me, have shaped my life as I have progressed from the bottom of the organizational chart to the top of my own organigram.

I now try to use his techniques of questioning, guiding, and leading in my parenting, mentoring, and corporate leadership. Finding the needs and concerns of my colleagues through questions that don’t put them on the spot, reading between the lines but not making assumptions, and truly caring about the outcome of each conversation because every interaction matters, are the traits Rich has taught me. I am still being mentored by Rich in life lessons as we occasionally meet over Indian food and great laughs. He likely doesn’t realize it, but I leave each of those lunches recharged and feeling like a million bucks. I have not refined my mentoring skills to his level, yet. But I’m working on it.

I have been on the receiving side of many mentoring relationships and am doing my best to ‘pay-it-forward’ as I mentor others. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the best leadership I provide is when I go into the mode of mentoring others through achieving their objectives.

Thank you, Rich!

Cheers,
Lois

Related posts:

1. Paying Your Workforce Forward
2. How Mentoring Focused Me on Fact-Based Decision Making
3. Leadership and Core Values

Tags: Leadership, mentoring

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