Mentoring.(NACM's 110th Credit Congress & Exposition)(credit managers)

I have often been advised by fellow credit professionals that while they would like to be a mentor, they do not have any formal training that would allow them to become one. My response is always the same: we have been Mentors, and have been mentored, a great part of our life. In many instances, we just do not realize that we are performing mentoring functions or being mentored by someone. In both our personal and professional lives we are in contact with relatives, friends and coworkers every day. If you helped a coworker see that he was not happy with his job and had talents better suited to another position, if you assisted someone with their NACM Roadmap, if you got someone to see that they had enough experience to sit for a NACM designation test, or if you encouraged someone to try a new software package to enhance their computer literacy, you were a Mentor.

A Mentor is a person who has an impact on someone's life through deeds, actions or words. The process can help them in developing talents used daily, or in identifying latent abilities. Mentoring is not counseling. It provides motivation and support to an individual seeking a new path. The Mentor can influence the Mentee in many ways; by helping to set performance standards, challenging self-expectations, offering motivation during difficult times or just by being a sounding board, I recall reading in an article by Dayle Shockley called, "Happiness Comes When We Reach Out And Touch Another Person's Life." That is what mentoring is all about.

Our professional lives tend to take up more and more of our daily lives these days. The interaction with our fellow co-workers should be a rewarding one. Mentoring can play a significant rote in that dynamic. Not only do we avail ourselves of the opportunity to give back to our profession some of what we have gained from it through our own growth and development as credit professionals, we usually tend to learn through the experience of helping others. I have been very fortunate in having mentors available to me through my association with NACM. Whether through interaction with my industry group, my local CFDD chapter or attendance at Regional and National Conferences, I have had the opportunity to meet a great many fellow credit professionals engaged in a wide range of business activities in companies both large and small. These individuals have been the ones that I've called upon ...