How Mentorship Can Be Philanthropic

Mentorship is the relationship of personal development in which a person with more knowledge of experience gives guidance to another less experienced or less knowledgeable individual. It is a practical methodology based on learning and sharing the needs of the mentee with the life, work or specialty experience of a mentor for example.

It is necessary to understand that mentoring starts from the philosophy that considers potential in all people; it is only required to exploit their potential. Healthcare Executive and President of the Innovation Institute at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), Leonard Achan is a leading example of a mentor and philanthropist. The New York based healthcare executive, entrepreneur, and artist idolizes the merit of mentorship and views it effects as “philanthropic”. He would go as far to say that mentorship, in some circumstances like healthcare, is a missing ingredient to scaling and enhancing the most usual form of philanthropy, which is donating money.

A mentor is in charge of channeling people’s knowledge, including their own, through advice and teaching to enhance their professional abilities and skills. They use inspiration to open people’s minds to help them achieve success. It is a form of philanthropy with a longstanding impact, protruding a chain of events which benefits a cause, a person or communities for example. An individual mentored by another professional would hopefully pass down that knowledge, wisdom, or craft and mentor others along the way, creating a perpetual benefit by simply sharing their brain and heart with others. This is something Achan is proving through a creative scholarship he most recently formed for the Healthcare Leaders of New York (HLNY).

As a professional, Achan’s excellence in mentoring others spanned across different fields, including business, academic, clinical healthcare and media, where he developed expertise within each realm. He embosses leadership, strategy, innovation and creativity as part of his professional acumen and his foundation by all who know him or his reputation. Those qualities set the stage for his mentorship of others.

Some consider that a mentor is not necessarily the person who will be in front of you but will inspire you to do many things. Thus, we have a famous businessman, a coach, an artist, a lecturer, among other things who inspires us all. Mentors can even be a person who has already passed away.

A mentor listens without judging and guides people, not to tell them what to do but to help them gain clarity on specific points. They will be the one to advise, but in the end, the mentee will be the one who makes the decision.

Through this link, the mentor shares his experience and knowledge with the mentee to thrive professionally and personally.

Mentoring is also to sometimes help you learn more than teach. It is about placing the center of gravity in the mentee, who becomes the real protagonist of their development, of their decisions, of their destiny. The learner will learn by listening, observing, asking, and practicing.

It is not the mentor who should provide the solutions. They should give advice, not answers. Ideally, the mentor becomes a generator of alternatives and helps the apprentice to generate them as well, so that he or she is the one who evaluates them and makes decisions. In short, the paths must be discovered by the apprentice – guided by the mentor – and chosen by assuming the consequences of their choices.

“A successful mentor-mentee relationship is a synergistic or symbiotic relationship in which both parties benefit,” adds Achan. Achan in 2018 established a scholarship and financial assistance program for students at Adelphi University in his late father’s name, known as the Leonard Achan Sr. Scholarship for students pursuing clinical studies. Additionally, he most recently founded The Leonard Achan Sr. Health Equity Scholarship Fund for the Healthcare Leaders of New York (HLNY) in 2020 aimed at students pursuing healthcare leadership programs in New York.

This coveted new scholarship for HLNY is focused on assisting students who are interested in healthcare leadership careers associated with community efforts and healthcare disparities, not only with financial assistance, but each awardee will be assigned a senior level healthcare executive mentor when they begin to work after graduating. The novel idea here was setting this fund up so others can join, donate and make more scholarships over time, scaling this effort. Some may say that the real priceless value of being awarded this scholarship will be the access to mentors. The money the student receives is just the cherry on top. Achan’s organized effort is a new model for HLNY and surely an example of how mentorship can be the real value offered to others, allowing the young and aspiring student pool to cater promising opportunities and eventually pay it forward in the future.

Its also important not to underappreciate that a mentor dedicates part of their time to promoting the other person’s personal growth and network through their guidance and relationships. In short, a mentor is a counselor and role model. The mentor is a reference to be followed by the mentee, someone they truly admire.

The cited source also comments that the mentor, as a person with more experience, supports the mentee in achieving their goals. While a coaching process is a temporary process carried out in several specific sessions, on the contrary, a mentoring process is more timeless (longer in time). The mentor trusts in the infinite capacity of personal improvement that the human being has. It is a type of relationship in which there is trust, mutual commitment, and involvement to the extent that each one fulfills a specific role.

Regarding the importance of mentoring, it is also added that thanks to it, a person can discover all the potential they have to be able to develop business projects effectively. Mentoring allows a person to learn faster and avoid many mistakes. The mentee acquires great self-confidence due to the mentor’s techniques, the prominent figure in this technique.

There is no doubt that the mentor is defined by their high empathy to put themself in the other’s place, actively listens to understand the story of the other, asks interesting questions, and provides valuable advice.

It is a helping relationship motivated by a personal matter or also with a professional theme. Mentoring is gaining more and more followers due to its effectiveness, especially in a world of virtual meetings and education. A mentee receives a mentoring session much better than a formal class. There is no doubt as it is known that a session between a mentor and a mentee absorbs all the knowledge and experiences, practically “unintentionally” since a relationship is established between them that may well resemble a natural conversation between two individuals. It is an efficient, more meaningful and quicker technique than formal training.

Sponsor Ads

• Ad Space Available - Rent it Now!

Report this Page

Created on Nov 6th 2020 14:38. Viewed 611 times.

Share on APSense

Comments