Leadership and Mentoring - Part 1: Rising Up to The Occasion

‘We Get Up’

Yesterday I had the privilege of substituting for youth Sunday School at Church. My audience consisted of a few 14 and 15 year old. Some of them have very short attention spans. We talked about keeping the faith and hope some challenges that some of the founders of our church faced and what we can do with them.

As I was wrapping up my lesson, I wanted to make sure the kids would take a good impression home. I honed in on Steve (not his real name), a kind 14 year old skinny boy who’s really into sports.

As expected, Steve had the attention span of a 14 year old boy who’s really into sports after 45 minutes in Sunday School. Steve is a leader, and I knew that if I had his attention, I had the attention of the rest of the class.

I changed my voice into podcast mode, and addressed him directly. Adopted a stern look on my face and asked firmly:??

‘Steve… What do we do when we fall?’

The next seconds I can only describe as Sunday School Beast Mode.

The footballer Steve came to the surface. He immediately mirrored me, and I knew that for a brief moment I had his full and undivided attention.??

His countenance and body language changed at that very moment. As if awakened from a trance (induced by a boring teacher would do that to you, go figure), he leaned forward, his sight fixated on mine; he adopted the stern look, clenched his jaw and while grinding his teeth he pronounced in a gritty voice and an intense tone:

"We get up."

I was ecstatic. With an answer like that, I could only emit an equally emotional response. It reminded me of a previous entry I did about getting up after falling. As I grinned and punched the air, I emitted a vivid: “YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!” and I didn’t care that I was at church while doing so (it was true joy, people, c’mon!).

Now we were ready to testify. I’m really grateful for those few seconds of deeper human connection. They were so uplifting, that they inspired me to reflect on my own journey.

Some thoughts on Mentorship and Leadership

Looking back, in 2019 I decided to create a Latino community centered on technology and innovation. As we had a recent event, I’ve been thinking about the journey so far, and the challenges ahead. It was rewarding to see an event of several organizations supporting Iberoamericans get integrated into the tech ecosystem in Utah. And yet, when seeing the pace of technology and the changes of the landscape, I was wondering how the community (which in its overwhelming majority is behind in the tech race) could get ahead.

I felt inspired to find ways to make an impact on the community with the limited resources I possess and a thought came to me: Leadership & Mentorship.

Now, in a true InnoLatino fashion, I will now focus on how this experience has inspired some thoughts about mentoring others, so they can become the innovative and morally strong leaders that will strive to make a positive difference.

Rise up to the Occasion

I think that we need to realize that having the opportunity to teach, mentor, coach or train and make a difference in someone’s life is a privilege, and it’s up to us to rise up to the challenge or not. It’s no wonder that for centuries the narratives of the relationship between master and disciple have survived across different cultures in the world.?

Mentoring gives you the chance to build a legacy, to impact history, to affect generations after you. I invite you to rise up to the occasion and share the knowledge you have with others.

Work on your own discipleship path

Hopefully I’ve made a strong case about why you’d want to be a mentor. Now let me suggest a powerful first step into the journey: YOU. Yes, yourself, and I’m not sugarcoating this when I say that it will take work.

Start with a good inventory: What are your attributes? Your own weaknesses? What motivates you? Who has helped you in the past? What have you learned? What are you working on to self-improve? Who inspires you to be a better person and why??

Want a point of start?, here you’ll feel like you can reach the stars after this example.

Build Moral Authority

Sometime ago a gentleman in my team had been appointed as a middle manager above us. He had a powerful charisma, and a way to win people over, which worked (to a point) for sales. He’d love to lecture on leadership, and (sadly) his examples would come mostly from the gaming guild he was part of. I’m not piling on video gaming, I’m saying this seemed to be the main (maybe only?) source of leadership experience.

There were serious problems with his leadership approach. This new appointee would engage in inappropriate conversations at work. He’d constantly miss his shifts and his excuses didn’t make a whole lot of sense. When he caused operations to start quite late and the customers were furious about it, he didn’t seem to care, and instead was indignant that his peers would dare to call him out on it.?

It’d be something like: 'How dare you?', 'How unprofessional are you acting now!', 'Let me tell you what I learned from the Marine Corps' (Spoiler: he was never a Marine).

His stories to justify absences soon stopped making sense and he knew whatever charm he possessed over the team and upper management was gone. He quit soon after that saying that he couldn’t work for a company that didn’t trust him.

He also complained that Diversity practices had kept him out of the workforce before.

We can solidly infer that my former colleague had an issue with being truthful (and even in touch with reality). Despite his sharp image (on which he had invested heavily) and cosmetic style of leadership, there wasn't a solid foundation to sustain his “teachings”.?

What I learned from the experience is how important the role of integrity is in team leadership. Yes, it’s a lot easier to pontificate about a principle than living it, and obviously, I can’t say I’m a perfect practical example of the findings and teachings? I share. But I can honestly say that I constantly try to do my best.

When we put a consistent effort in living the principles we profess, our credibility is established, even or especially when we need to correct the course in our leadership journey.

Just lead by example, Mi Gente. It pays off.

It’s not just about YOU, it’s about THEM:

It’s not a bad thing to ask, 'What's in it for me?’ After all, we do need to assess the benefit of the causes and actions where we invest our energy.?

However, if we go into mentoring with self-hyperfocus, we might lose sight of the people we might actually be trying to create impact for. Too much attention into our social status, interests, images, etc. might make us lose sight of the mission and impact we wanted to create.?

Be realistic and generous on the personal ROI when engaging in mentoring. See what an altruistic approach might do in your life. It might help you relieve your own problems. Practice, however, constant emotional self-care by monitoring your mental and emotional well-being as well as your family’s. No need to sacrifice one for the other.?

It’s not just about THEM, it’s about US:

I think one of the greatest moments in mentorship is when we’ve been able to create a common bond among several people, a sense of belonging, in a word: a community. I invite you to adopt community-creation among your goals.?

More on the subject of community in this article.

A Final Invitation

Over the weekend, a white supremacist group marched briefly in Herriman, UT, that’s about 25 minutes South West from Salt Lake City. The city happens to host many Venezuelan refugees. A couple of dozen hooded men were protesting against the “invaders”.?

These clowns knew they were in the minority, so they only did their hate skit long enough to generate online content and not find any opposition to it and quickly disbanded. I don’t remember seeing other white supremacists groups around here, and yet I find this a bit unsettling. #Utah is much more welcoming and nicer than this.?

So, as disturbing as this is, instead of feeding into this ridiculous hate, I decided to counter by creating another newsletter edition. In a true InnoLatino fashion, this one with the purpose of encouraging those who believe in making the world a better place.?

Sometimes, when you hear the bad stuff going on around, you feel like losing courage, and it’s examples like little Steve’s that really make you want to keep going and try to make a positive difference in the world.?

A passage from the Old Testament came into my mind. It says:

"Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees." Isaiah 35:3

Know that you can be the person making a difference. If you’re already engaged and trying, THANK YOU for doing so. Don’t get discouraged. You’re filling the world with light, just as much as you’re filling yourself with it.