Mentoring for All Ages

Written By Allison Pollard

Photo by Ariel van Spronsen

January is National Mentoring Month.  Realizing that it's National Mentoring Month made me wonder what else I can do to mentor others.  According to the official NMM website:

To be a mentor, you don't need special skills, just an ability to listen and to offer friendship, guidance and encouragement to a young person. And you'll be amazed by how much you'll get out of the experience.

Helping young people is great, and it's why I'm happy to be on the Theta Tau Educational Foundation board supporting college students who belong to the fraternity.  In fact, one of the key skills I look forward to teaching my student brothers is how to be a mentor to others.

But it's not just young people who can benefit from mentors.  Sometimes we all need to talk to someone who can help us be successful.  In order to connect with more people I can help, I'm trying a new tool: Clarity.  It's a service that helps you find, schedule and pay for expert advice over the phone to help you be more productive.  All of my earnings go to charity:water.

Allison Pollard

Allison Pollard is a coach, consultant, and trainer who brings the power of relationship systems intelligence to go beyond tasks, roles, and frameworks to create energy for change. She engages with people and teams in a down-to-earth way to build trust and listen for signals to help them learn more and improve. Allison focuses on creating alignment and connection for people to solve business problems together. Her experience includes working with teams and leaders in energy, retail, financial, real estate, and transportation industries to help improve their project/product delivery and culture. Allison currently volunteers as program director for Women in Agile’s mentorship program. Her agile community focus is championing new voices and amplifying women as mentors and sponsors for the next generation of leaders. Allison earned her bachelor’s degrees in computer science, mathematics, and English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a foodie, and proud glasses wearer. Allison is a prolific speaker at professional groups and international conferences, including Scrum Gatherings and the Agile Alliance Agile20xx conferences. Allison is co-owner of Helping Improve LLC.

http://www.allisonpollard.com
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