What does a mentor look like? In Hollywood, we may envision the mentoring relationship of Yoda and Luke Skywalker as an example. But what does one look like in real life? I have worked with many disability and mental health professionals, and they make exemplary examples of mentors. They are hired to help and support the client to achieve the client's own goals and with this support, many of these disabled clients are able to thrive in who they are and what their abilities are. They hopefully become contributing members of society. Their support workers become mentors and are an essential part of the client's day-to-day life. This relationship has much to teach us about what mentorship looks like.

A mentor needs to have something the mentoree needs. This may be obvious, but there is no point in being mentored by someone who has nothing to offer. A paraplegic client in a wheelchair is not going to request physical assistance from a quadriplegic client in a wheelchair. A client with severe short-term memory loss is not going to request help from another client with even more severe short-term memory loss. Likewise, I am not going to ask an 18-year-old to mentor me in the intricacies of corporate politics. I may ask him to mentor me in how to program a computer, but not in something he does not have any expertise or experience in. Mentors must have something the mentoree needs and that acknowledgment of need by the potential mentoree is the first step in the mentoring relationship.

Disabled clients must accept that they need help and embrace that help as part of their lives. It does nothing for a client in a wheelchair to refuse to acknowledge the fact that he is in a wheelchair. He will be limited in many areas because of that wheelchair and unfortunate as it is, the disability is a reality he will need to learn to live with. Likewise, every single human has limitations and denying them will not help us grow. A mentor may be needed to help us notice and embrace those weaknesses because those weaknesses may not be as obvious as being in a wheelchair. For instance, I may truly believe I know how to motivate staff, but a mentor may be able to see another side of me and see my weaknesses. Now if a support worker just sat there and pointed out repeatedly to a client that he is in a wheelchair, then what good would the support worker be doing for him? There is more than just acknowledgement required which leads to our next step.

HRM Review Magazine, Business Mentoring, Management Team, Socratic Method, Corporate Politics, Philosophical Topics, Luke Skywalker, Quadriplegic Client, Socratic Teaching Method, Paraplegic Client.