Michael Hyatt has an blog post called HOW TO FIND A MENTOR TO HELP YOU GO FURTHER, FASTER with which I take very strong issue.
He writes: The truth is you can be mentored now if you understand the eight levels of mentoring: Unfortunately he doesn’t understand the difference between mentoring, which is providing feedback, advice, and guidance to another person based on your own experience and self-directed learning, which is teaching yourself, for example by reading books. You can’t mentor yourself! (You can’t coach yourself either!)
The first four of is eight methods of “being mentored” actually are good suggestions for self-directed learning. And a membership site like LinkedIn has articles and groups that can help you learn.
- Blogs and podcasts
- Books
- Courses
- Conferences
- Masterminds – I have no idea what this is!
- Membership sites
- Coaches
- Mentors
As with many other people, Mr. Hyatt also seems confused about the difference between coaching, which is being trained by another highly trained person, and mentoring, which is being advised and guided by another highly experienced person. Mentors don’t tell you what to do, like a football or basketball coach does, they try to lead you to the right decision by asking the right questions, telling stories about their own experiences, proving feedback and guidance. He seems to think a coach is simply a paid mentor – not accurate. See my post Coaching vs. Mentoring.
If you are interested in finding a mentor, here’s a post that will help: 8 Austin tech leaders offer advice for finding a startup mentor.
Sorry, but I can’t help you find a coach, or a mastermind either for that matter!
Mentorphile 