When you pause a few moments to think about it, consider just how great it would be to sit down with one of the most well-known leaders of all time. Wouldn’t that be incredible?

I would never put myself out there as that level of leader for a moment. But, I know that what everyone wants is that sense of a 1-on-1 dialog and they want that intimate relationship that is built through the kinds of conversations that occur over an extended period of time.

What is the Vision?

My vision is to create that kind of mentoring relationship where we are handcrafting leaders in small batches and not stamping them out in a factory automated format. One size has never fit all. And building more Emotionally Agile Leaders is an artisan process rather than a mass-production process.

Leadership is modeled. It is not taught. Leadership must be lived out and demonstrated before our protégés eyes to be able to impact followers and impact those who would yearn to be a leader too.

Mentoring is not a mass production process. It is done more in the style of an artisan or craftsman who painstakingly creates a work of art one at a time over a substantial period of time.

It is no accident!

Mentor and protégé relationships do not occur accidentally. Ideally, a potential protégé will seek you out specifically to become their mentor. But, it is you, the leader, who is charged with devising the activities that will reproduce and make more leaders instead of just more followers. So, go find a protégé. The mentor / protégé relationship is still very foreign to today’s culture. Therefore, it is vitally important that each party understands up front what it means to be an Emotionally Agile Leader.

My goal as a mentor is never to make more of “Me.” Even as a long-term practitioner of Emotionally Agile Leadership principles, I have glaring weaknesses in certain areas. So, to reproduce more leaders that have the same emotionally agile leadership weaknesses or shortcomings that I possess is to continue to accept leadership deficiencies in the next generation of leaders.

A Nike™ Moment

Nike™ has made the following statement part of our cultural vernacular: “Just do it!^©” So, let me take a page out of their script. “Just go start a mentoring relationship with a protégé.” Your first experience will not be great. Your next one will be better. And if you keep mentoring, you will become proficient. And if you keep in mind the fact that the protégé is looking for you or anyone who will just take a little time and invest in their leadership development.

Go find a protégé!