The Role of Mentors in Closing the Gap

If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t like Terry Ward very much when I first met him. The limited interaction I had prior to his portion of the behavior-based safety observer training was adversarial at best and I thought his delivery as a trainer was incredibly annoying. Looking back, I know my opinion of both were heavily influenced by a few grumpy bastards that I worked directly with, none of which were interested in anything resembling career growth or had the slightest bit of desire to provide me with anything that could help me move forward. Once I had the chance to interact with him more regularly I was invited to be part of the process’s steering committee, I quickly learned how passionate he was about making a positive impact. While his approach initially ruffled my feathers, the process facilitator explained to me that not everyone was as laid back as I was used to, having never really ventured out of the sleepy Shenandoah Valley much to that point. Once I got over myself, I realized how much value he offered any group he was a part of just through being willing to speak up even when his input went against the grain; I had seen far too many people stay quiet in meetings then bitch about something later on that they could have made an impact on had they spoken up.

Around the same time I started interacting with him more regularly, I had also started to read books and magazines focused on business and professional development. I learned to read early in elementary school but I only recall reading one complete book by the time I graduated high school. I’ve always struggled to sit still, which has yet to change, and I had no interest whatsoever in doing so to read some random story that I couldn’t apply immediately in my own life - that’s what TV and movies are for… As I started digging into books by people like Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey, and John C. Maxwell, a whole new world opened up. I stopped registering for classes at the community college I was enrolled with just after I turned twenty, largely because English Comp was the next one on my list. I pictured that as being a semester of force-fed literary study and death by a thousand grammatical corrections. I no interest in either. But what I was picking up from this newly found genre of books filled a hole I didn’t even know I had.

Make no mistake, I was far from being on a fast track to anything at that point, but just that initial exposure to voices that were beginning to serve as mentors in different aspects of my life started filling gaps I didn’t even know I had. Be it through direct conversation with folks like Terry or Dennis (the behavior-based safety process facilitator), or through more broad lessons I was picking up from the books I was reading, I was able to navigate challenges more effectively and I become aware of some blind spots that were between me and my next opportunities. It wasn’t until I understood the value of the (often unsolicited) feedback mentors like Terry offered that I even had a chance at any real professional growth or advancement - so we’ll take a quick look at that next.