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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production

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of I Heart Radio. Good

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Morning. This is Laura. Welcome

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to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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tip is about how to make time to

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mentor. Many

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of us have been helped by mentors in our careers,

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and we'd like to pay our gratitude forward. Like

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everything, though, mentoring takes time.

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It's easy to shove it to the bottom of the priority

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list when life gets busy. But

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I think even busy people can make time

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to mentor. Indeed, I hope

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busy people will make time to mentor for a

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few reasons. First, I think it's

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important to show that even people with full personal

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and professional lives can contribute

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to the community. But let's admit

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a selfish reason. Too few

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of us have so arrived that

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we can't be helped by other people. The

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people you mentor early in your career may

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go on to become fabulously success full

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while you are still working, and it

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will be great that they think fondly of

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you. So how can you

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build this into your schedule. One

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of the best things you can do is to be choosy

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about who you mentor. Well,

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we do have time for whatever matters to us.

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Time is ultimately limited.

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You can't mentor everyone, so

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you want to mentor the people who will blossom

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best with your help. You can

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definitely be strategic about this. If

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you're in a desirable industry, and particularly

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if you're in a position where you hire people,

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you will probably get a ton of requests

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to pick your brain. This is

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really a terrible image if you think about it, and it

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can be easy to feel resentful about these

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requests. So one of the best ideas

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I've ever heard for people in this situation

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is to create a list of frequently

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asked questions. Take

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half an hour or so this week to create

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a document with the most common bits of advice

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people ask you for. Send

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this list around to anyone who asks

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to pick your brain, invite them

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to read it, and then send you any follow

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up questions. Here's an

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interesting discovery. Most

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people won't bother to

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follow up. I have no idea

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why this is. I guess I think people

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kind of hope that if they get a coffee meeting with the

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right person, great things will just magically happen.

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But in any case, by sending a list of frequently

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asked questions around, you've been helpful. But

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now you're off the hook. However,

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there will be people who read your document

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and then follow up with intelligent questions.

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Those people, by all means, meet

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with them. They're the folks who are

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serious and are the best use of

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your time. As for those

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meetings, feel free to make them convenient for

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you. You might designate a time

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like every other Friday morning for

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these sorts of meetings. Anyone who asks

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can be put there. Limiting the

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time frame makes it easier to make mental space

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for these meetings rather than having any time

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be an option. You can also

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have people come to you. Feel

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free to choose whatever location minimizes

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your transition times, like the coffee

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shop on the first level of your office building.

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You can also look for ways to fold people into

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what you're already doing. I've

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heard many creative examples over the years, such

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as inviting mintees to go for a

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morning walk or run with you, or

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sharing a ride to the airport. Many

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years ago, one of my editors drove me back

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to the side of Washington, d C. Where we both

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lived from our office in Virginia. Most

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days, I tried to keep her entertained

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in traffic, and she taught me a lot while doing

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something that she had to do every day anyway.

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Of course I saw her at work too,

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and that's really the best way to fit mentoring into

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your life. Ideally, you work

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with a lot of high potential people that you'd

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like to see succeed. Ideally,

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these are the sorts of people you're hiring. If

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that's the case, then mentoring is really

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just part of managing every

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time you work with someone, be generous

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and gracious with fee back. Ask

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about their lives, ask about

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their desired career trajectories. Look

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for ways to make opportunities for them.

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Because careers are long and

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so are memories. Time

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strategically invested this way will

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definitely pay off. So

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how will you make time to mentor in

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the meantime? This is Laura, Thanks

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for listening, and here's to making the most

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of our time. Hey,

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everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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You can send me your tips, your questions, or

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anything else. Just connect with

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me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

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at Before Breakfast pod that's

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B the number four, then

4:46

breakfast p o D. You

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can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

4:52

podcast at i heeart media dot com.

4:54

That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the

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letters. Thanks so much, I look

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forward to staying in touch. Yeah Before

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