Time-travelling reminiscences – Reflective Leadership
Picture: Contributed
The unique Mentor with his mentee, Telemachus, the son of Odysseus
I found out I can time journey even though sitting at my desk.
As I scroll as a result of my college alumni Facebook team, I am back in time, back in my small hometown.
When I read posts from people today decades more mature than me and posts from my classmates’ kids, I am reminded of my formative a long time, and close friends, academics, neighbours.
I relive the seemingly profound gatherings — lapping Most important (road, that is), attending the yearly church picnic, standing as a wallflower at the state neighborhood corridor dances.
In these time-journey wanderings, I gained the most touching reward. At any time.
In a modern write-up, my Grade 8 PE/Well being trainer, John Pullen, talked about his mom and dad.
John’s father, Jack, was the senior pharmacist in town, and was shut to retirement when I obtained the coveted career of functioning at the drugstore when I was 12.
I was a cashier, a shipper/receiver. I stocked cabinets and established magazine shows.
Just one day, Mrs. Taylor was sick and I was promoted to the dispensary. There, I put tablet bottles into bags and stapled the prescription instructions.
I vibrated with the newness of the assignment – rows of bottles, neatly labelled, have been shelved powering me although I scanned the keep from the lofty heights of the dispensary.
I positioned small, white baggage crammed with products and liquid concoctions in alphabetical order beside the income sign-up, waiting around for pickup.
The new obligation exhilarated me.
Mr. Pullen would convey to me about several medicines and how they worked, but he never talked about the patients. He didn’t need to have to — my vivid imagination concocted its have diagnosis of all people in town.
Mr. and Mrs. Pullen lived on the future avenue – by some means an virtually insurmountable barrier for my slender see of life. He would invite me to visit soon after do the job.
Just after my two-hour, right after-school change, I’d race home to consume and bounce on my bike and experience to their grand, two-storey dwelling.
As the 2nd oldest of 5 kids, with operating mother and father, I had a lot of responsibility and minimal interest.
At the Pullens, I was the “golden-haired youngster.” They had 3 sons. The oldest two experienced long gone off to college. The youngest son was so a great deal more mature than me that I deemed him irrelevant.
About tea geared up by Mr. Pullen, the a few of us would chat. They answered my youthful, ill-conceived concerns. They endured my relentless curiosity. And I figured out tales of their youth.
The Pullens understood of my insatiable drive to go to university. They hired me for odd positions around the household, chores wheelchair-sure Mrs. Pullen couldn’t do. I hope I did them effectively.
Examining the Fb post about Mr. and Mrs. Pullen bought me pondering about the value of mentors.
The first mentor was named Mentor, the trusted buddy of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey, who was billed with guiding Odysseus’ son, Telemachus.
- As leaders, we are billed with guiding our teams.
- As mother and father, we are billed with guiding our kids.
- As community customers, we can select to manual the youth, the a lot less privileged.



There are three roles that mentors fulfil:
- Specialist. They share specialised understanding.
- Counsellor. They pay attention, guideline, and offer feedback and tips, but not all the responses.
- Cheerleader. They share enthusiasm and rejoice successes, no issue how modest.



As a leader, my most gratifying part was mentoring new agents. When I labored closely with rookies as they figured out how to listing a home or enable a purchaser locate a property, they would jump out of the nest into independence and autonomy.
This was the quickest way to launch their new career.
As a company mentor, a single of my favourite memories is a breathless get in touch with from one of my mentees. She was producing a household-delivery services and experienced branded her shipping van.
“I bought a get in touch with from a person she reported she observed a person of our vans and wanted to know if we would provide to her. She does not know it, but we only have one van.”
Mentoring can go beyond the office to personal, career, and community. A close friend is mentoring an immigrant in the English language, introducing her to everyday living in Canada, and getting ready the aspiring doctor for her qualifying clinical tests.
In accordance to Mentoring.org, young older people with a mentor are:

55% less probably than their peers to skip a day of school
- 78% additional probable to volunteer on a regular basis
- 90% fascinated in getting to be a mentor
- A whopping 130% additional probably to hold a leadership place.



Sage.com cites the statistic that while 97% of persons who have mentors consider mentorship is valuable, 85% of them never have a mentor.
If we want to make a variance in a new business’ profitability, sustainability, and viability, we require to step up and be mentors – in particular in these unparalleled times of organization disruption.
Just one of my first mentors was my former boss who came to perform with me. For the reason that of his encounter and our romantic relationship, I could burst into his office environment, eyes flashing. “I am going to hearth them all.”
He would lean again in his chair and place his glasses on the desk. In his reduced, serene voice, he would level me in an additional way, instructing to be more self-confident in my qualities, to improve my management competencies. And not hearth them all.
Years later on, Mr. Pullen passed, drained from a long time of caregiving and dispensing medicine. Mrs. Pullen flourished at the regional seniors’ lodge.
I would stop by her all through my weekends property from college.
In reaction to my remark about my recollections of his mother and father, my PE trainer wrote this:
“Yes, Myrna. They held you in fantastic regard. I thank you extremely a lot.”
From my very first mentors from a long time ago, two time-travel presents – a most unpredicted compliment and the abundant existence I am privileged to lead simply because of their direction.
