Sustaining Relationships for Long-Term ROI

One common thread with each of the amazing mentors I’ve interacted with to this point in my life has been that all of them have juggled incredibly busy schedules. I’m always amazed at how they’re all willing to block time to provide mentorship insight routinely - especially when they’ve seen their previous guidance put into practice and make a positive impact. Even then, though, I’ve rarely seen any of those mentors be the one to initiate the process. To build each of those relationships to a point where I recognized measurable leadership growth, I saw sustaining the relationship as my sole responsibility. In The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John Maxwell shared, “The sooner you make the transition to becoming intentional about your personal growth, the better it will be for you, because growth compounds and accelerates IF you remain intentional about it.” We can also achieve that compounding growth by sustaining great relationships with each of our mentors!

While I have less direct time with Terry, Rod, and Kevin today than I had years prior, the value of each interaction is exponentially greater because of the foundation established more than twenty years ago. And albeit occasional, I’m still intentional about reaching out to each of them just to check in. While the questions I pose for them as less frequent now than before, I want to make sure our connection never diminishes. Not only has each of them helped shape my career, I know I can always count on them for input when I need it.

Since my first interaction with Chris Rollins in 2015, I’ve been just as intentional about cultivating our relationship. We initially connected on similar industry experience and nearly identical communication styles (both being very DRIVEN). Chris and his wife had been in business together for several years at that point, and they provided some of the same service to their clients that Cindy and I hoped to deliver for ours. I got a ton of value every time I talked with him, but I wanted to be sure I did all I could to reciprocate. We should all work to provide as much value as we receive, and that’s even more crucial when the person we’re receiving from is in business for themselves; there’s never a shortage of tasks a business owner needs to accomplish and not nearly enough of them fall into the “billable hours” category… 

For the first several years I knew Chris, I made a point of being on every conference call or webinar he hosted. I knew I’d learn something each time, but I was just as interested in showing my support. In early 2019, he invited us to write a chapter for a collaborative book he was putting together detailing practical application of the DISC Model of Human Behavior across different industries. We felt under-qualified but jumped at the chance regardless; most of the others he was working with had far more education and fancier resumes than us. That may have been one of the first times I was able to truly add value to him in return - and it resulted in our first time being listed on Amazon’s Best Seller list! In the years since, I’ve interacted with Chris more often than any other mentor. The conversations we’ve had and the projects we’ve worked on together have helped me achieve several career breakthroughs - and I'm pretty sure our interaction has served him well, too.

To be sure we’re sustaining the relationships with our mentors for long-term return on investment, here are some things we should never leave to chance:

• Schedule time for routine check-ins; don’t just assume they’ll happen
• Regardless of our role in the relationship, mentor or mentee, work to deliver value without expectation
• Be intentional about showing (and saying) how much we appreciate the time the other person is investing into us
• Document ideas. While something may not take shape immediately, great ideas from our mentors have a way of materializing over time
• Actively work to show our mentors how we’re putting their guidance into practice
• Continually develop our emotional intelligence to get the most from the mentoring relationship, and to pass what we learn on to others

As each of these become routine in the relationships we build with our mentors, we’ll never have any issue seeing to long-term return on investment. As we work to pay it forward, we may just be fortunate enough to see the trickle-down transform entire organizations - and we’ll wrap up with that next.