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.
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