Early in my own career, it became clear to me that there were many things I needed to learn, and many skills I needed to have. I set about this learning process with lots of energy and enthusiasm. The major approach I used was trial and error – I tried doing something new, and noticed whether it worked. When it did not work, which happened more often than not, I would notice that it had not worked, and try something else. Gradually, over many years, I acquired the knowledge and skills I needed to be successful in my career. In hindsight, my career progress would have been much quicker if I had had guidance over time to help me understand what specific knowledge and skills I needed next.
I also noticed the value of mentoring very early on – but for others, not for myself. No one offered to mentor me, or pointed out what skills and knowledge I needed to acquire, and how I might best learn those skills and knowledge. But I noticed in my first few months of full-time employment that one of my colleagues – a gentleman a dozen years older than I, who had his PhD from Stanford (while I was still working on completing my undergraduate degree), lacked a skill that I had. He was brilliant, but his writing was very difficult for others to understand. In fact, the editor who was working with me on a report I was producing was also working with him on a paper he was writing. This editor told me that she had a very difficult time editing his work, because she was never sure what meaning he intended, and she was fearful that any editorial changes she made might accidentally change the meaning from what he had intended. So, since I had what the Irish call “the gift of gab” I went right up to him and offered to mentor him on communicating with others. I offered to read his writing, and respond to him with questions until I understood what he was trying to convey, and then work with the editor to simplify the language so others could understand it. He accepted my offer, and we worked together successfully – our customers were highly appreciative that his brilliant ideas became accessible to them. And my colleague was so grateful that years later, after we had both moved on to other jobs, he lit up like a Christmas tree when we encountered each other by chance.
After years of learning by trial and error, I reflected on what I had learned, and how the process had worked for me. I realized that the trial and error had its upside: the discipline of continually noticing what was working, and what was not working, had proved very valuable in all of my endeavors. But the process of discovering by trial and error what knowledge and skills I needed had proved very slow – in hindsight, my career progress would have been much quicker if I had had guidance to suggest what specific knowledge and skills would have the most immediate payoff. I also noticed that knowledge and skills I had worked hard to acquire was lost when I did not put it to use soon after learning it. In fact, I ended up having to relearn quite a lot, because I had initially learned it long before I needed to know it, and in the intervening time, I had forgotten much of it. So when I actually needed the knowledge and skills, I had to learn them again.
All of this led me to the conclusion that mentoring has real value – especially if the mentor encourages the mentee to do experimentation, so they can learn from their own trial and error, and also points the mentee toward the knowledge and skills which will be of most immediate use to them.
ConsideredThoughtfully was founded to try to deliver just this kind of mentoring. The products and services available on our StepUp.work website offer encouragement to experiment and learn from the results of your own actions, combined with questions to diagnose your highest-value just-in-time learning needs.
Written by Dorothy McKinney, founder and CEO of ConsideredThoughtfully, the company behind StepUp.work.
After years of learning by trial and error, I reflected on what I had learned, and how the process had worked for me. I realized that the trial and error had its upside: the discipline of continually noticing what was working, and what was not working, had proved very valuable in all of my endeavors. But the process of discovering by trial and error what knowledge and skills I needed had proved very slow – in hindsight, my career progress would have been much quicker if I had had guidance to suggest what specific knowledge and skills would have the most immediate payoff. I also noticed that knowledge and skills I had worked hard to acquire was lost when I did not put it to use soon after learning it. In fact, I ended up having to relearn quite a lot, because I had initially learned it long before I needed to know it, and in the intervening time, I had forgotten much of it. So when I actually needed the knowledge and skills, I had to learn them again.
All of this led me to the conclusion that mentoring has real value – especially if the mentor encourages the mentee to do experimentation, so they can learn from their own trial and error, and also points the mentee toward the knowledge and skills which will be of most immediate use to them.
ConsideredThoughtfully was founded to try to deliver just this kind of mentoring. The products and services available on our StepUp.work website offer encouragement to experiment and learn from the results of your own actions, combined with questions to diagnose your highest-value just-in-time learning needs.
Written by Dorothy McKinney, founder and CEO of ConsideredThoughtfully, the company behind StepUp.work.
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