I can’t help but notice a certain amount of chatter on my social media timelines about “mentoring”.  In our industry, we tend to associate this in the form of career advancement.  We take someone with less experience (a “junior”) and help provide them guidance and advice so that pitfalls from personal experiences do not become long-term roadblocks (usually in the form of a “senior”).  However, I’m starting to notice a disturbing trend in some of these discussions.  That trend is that you need to be a “senior” to be able to transfer this wisdom down to a “junior”.  I’m sorry, mentoring isn’t a one-way street.

I get that someone that earned a title with the term of “senior” in it has likely gotten quite a bit of experience.  I’m not trying to discredit the notion that a senior should pass down information to a junior.  I’m discrediting the single direction notion that it’s the only way that matters.  Look, every single one of us learns in their own unique way.  As someone who’s been told that they do a decent job in mentoring others, I can tell you that it works both ways.  The amount of learning I’ve been able to do from those who call themselves a “junior” has been just as important as from those I consider my “senior”.

The main point I’m trying to make here is that for you to really succeed in mentoring, you have to be willing to be mentored.  If you aren’t receptive to being mentored, regardless of your “status”, you are soon going to be left behind in this industry.  An industry, I’ll remind you, that evolves at a highly accelerated pace.  If you aren’t learning, from EVERYWHERE, in this industry, you’ve failed.  Harsh?  Yep.  The time for tough love in upon us.

Now that I’ve likely pissed off the “senior” crowd, let’s go back to some of the “juniors” out there.  I want to tell you something very important.  There’s plenty of us “veterans” in this industry that need a good shake up.  Keep up with asking questions and pointing out that maybe, just maybe, the way they do things isn’t always the best way.  It’s going to continue to force EVERYONE to keep learning.  Sitting on laurels is an immediate off-ramp to irrelevancy.

Mentoring isn’t a single direction.  Like DevOps, mentoring is a feedback loop.  The more feedback you give and get, the better everyone involved in that loop becomes.  As far as I’m concerned, if you are involved in that loop, your relationships should be more classified as Any to Any.  You give advice to everyone and you get advice from everyone.  That’s how it should work.  The expectation that some great oracle on high is going to pass down wisdom and should be your only source is, well, bunk.

Last point; I promise.  George Bernard Shaw gave us the infamous quote of “He who can, does; he who cannot; teaches.”  Many people still believe in this quote.  Sorry to burst a bubble here, but the quote is bullshit.  If you believe that ever action you take is a teachable moment, then you believe your entire actions dictate that you cannot.  Every single one of us is a teacher.  Every single one of us, as it would happen, is also a student.  For every single one of you, keep teaching AND keep learning.