Accepting someones request to listen to their problems and provide viable solutions is among the highest forms of charity. An intelligent mentor should know that sometimes when young people come to you with problems, the best thing you can do is *LISTEN* attentively and carefully to every detail, not just assume their story is like the dozens of similar stories you have heard before. You may miss crucial nuances if you assume that every problem with issue x is similar. Mentoring also involves not necessarily sharing your own life story as a solution, as if to say, do what I did and youll be OK. A mentor knows their own life experiences may help provide a reference for the seeker, but not necessarily translate with every detail. Handing out cookie cutter solutions to young peoples problems from mentors, both uncle-mentors and elder brother/sister-mentors is an indictment on the elder: you didnt listen well enough. So when these cookie cutter solutions fail, which they inevitably do, mentors should ask: Did I fail in my job?, before passing blame to young people? Sometimes the doctor wrote the wrong prescription based on a wrong diagnosis, even if the the patient was compliant.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 08:25:14 +0000
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