MENTEES

Do you remember some ten, twenty or thirty years ago when you were in primary school, and you were repeatedly reminded that you are the leader of tomorrow? Teachers would constantly hammer on this fact and even made songs out of it. Little did we know that ‘tomorrow’ is not some vague time in the future. Little did we know that ‘tomorrow’ would quickly become today. Look around you and assess the situation of the world. Nations are rapidly falling and deviating from the path set by their founding fathers, organizations are crashing, families are breaking, and there is chaos everywhere. All of these bring one question to mind “where did we go wrong?” The answer is simple; it is because we did not mentor ‘our leaders of tomorrow’, we left the future to design its path, which has led us to where we are. Mentoring is the best shot we have at shaping the future today.

Without good direction, people lose their way; the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.

Proverbs 11:14

As a mentor, your primary purpose is to help a lesser experienced person become the best version of themselves. However, it would be best if you began to think more large scale. Have it at the back of your mind that this person you are mentoring can go on to become the president of a country or organization. Hence, your work moves from helping them become better for themselves to helping them become the best for their environment and society at large. In other words, your job as a mentor takes on the likeness of leadership training. Begin to see your job as not just helping individuals but helping organizations and nations. Imagine the weight of impact you would be making in the world.

If I am allowed to have an opinion, I would say mentoring often begins too late. Most of the people we mentor are adults who are either professionals or working in one capacity or the other. We tend to forget the children, teenagers and young adults. In the not-so-distant future, the mantle to lead in various capacities will fall on them. Are they prepared? You never know when the opportunity to lead will present itself. From being a class monitor to being a school prefect, we are responsible for building them. For instance, in the UNICEF, we have children in representation who have a say in the running of things. One of them is II-year old Dante who at such tender age has a massive following, and uses his platform to educate people on nature [1]. You might be wondering “How is a child expected to have a mentor?” Well, if a child has a parent, teacher or guardian, then that answers it. As responsible adults, it is our duty to mentor and builds these children to prepare them for leadership in whatever capacity.

In a book by Robin Sharma titled “The leader with no title” we discover the concept of being a leader simply because you are a human being. You are a leader, whether you have a title or not. In whatever capacity you find yourself, you need to lead. This then calls for mentoring for everyone—the need for everyone to be mentored into the capacity of a leader. Imagine a world where everyone operated in their offices with the mindset of a leader.

As a mentor, it is our responsibility to mentor people into leadership, the mentee of today will become the mentor of tomorrow, and the follower today will become the leader tomorrow.

Thank you for reading. If you agree with this or otherwise, please share your thoughts with me in the comment section.

[1] https://www.voicesofyouth.org/blog/world-childrens-day-9-young-leaders-making-difference-children-worldwide