En 105 - the Importance of Having a Mentor

Tonya Jones

Professor Christopher Tower

EN105

18 August 2017

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A MENTOR

The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the importance of mentorship; in particular, the relationship that I had with my first mentor during my first assignment in a leadership role while in the military. I didn’t realize back then the direct effect that relationship would come to have on the remainder of my Navy career.  I am proud of the fact that my mentor had such a profound impact on my career; so much so that I am able to write about it today.  I chose to emulate much of what he taught me through mentoring the junior sailors that I would ultimately come to be responsible for over the years that followed.  The challenge I faced while completing this assignment was trying to organize my thoughts.  I’ve always loved to write (I keep a personal journal), but I’ve also had issues in the past when writing papers.  Once I decide what it is that I want to write about, I’ll have a million ideas on the subject, but could never figure out quite where to begin.  The feedback I would like to receive would be anything that can help me to construct a stronger paper, different ways that I can go about organizing my thoughts (other than an outline), and anything else you think might help me to become a stronger writer.

When I think back on my Navy career, my career progression, those that were instrumental in my successes, and those that were there to tell me when I wasn’t doing things quite right, I can distinctly remember the individuals that mentored me along the way.  I joined the Navy in December of 1992.  Back then, things were quite different.  There wasn’t a mentorship program in place for junior sailors.  The majority of what you learned was accomplished through on-the-job training and self-motivation.  This changed in 2000 when an official mentorship program was put in place.  It laid out the specifications and expectations of the program.  The Senior Enlisted Leadership (ranked E-7 through E-9) were directly responsible for the professional development of their junior sailors.  In the beginning, the program was very formal; contracts were in place for the mentor and protégé to sign and protégés were assigned to mentors.  The biggest issue with this way forward was the formality of the program.  More often than not, the mentor/protégé pairings did not work out.  This was the main reason why the program was  changed to make it a bit more informal.  Protégé’s were now able to choose who they wanted as their mentor.  I was stationed at the Pentagon in 1999 for three years.  At the end of that tour, I was promoted, which meant that I would be in a leadership position at my next assignment.  I was then transferred to Joint Analysis Center, Molesworth, England.  During this tour, I met my first mentor (and supervisor) Chief Petty Officer Robert McRae, an E-7 in the Navy.  The concept of leadership was new, and a bit intimidating to me.  I knew more would be expected of me.  I knew I had to set the example for my junior sailors, but I didn’t know quite how I was going to do that.  Chief McRae took me under his wing the moment I arrived on station.  He told me exactly what was expected of me, but he also knew that I had limited experience in most of the things that I needed to know.  He came up with a professional development plan to help me to get to where I needed to be.  He was very patient with me, as there was much I didn’t understand.  What I quickly came to learn about the mentor/protégé relationship was that a strong mentor has to have a solid working knowledge in their particular area of work, have patience with their protégé, be able to actively listen, and above all, show that they genuinely care about the success of the person they are mentoring.  As a protégé, you also need to be able to actively listen, as well as be open minded to the things you are being told by my your mentor.  Although our official mentorship relationship only lasted for one year, I chose to keep Chief McRae as my mentor for several different reasons.  Not only was he a subject matter expert in the same field of work that I was in, but he had already achieved many of the things that were, at that time, goals I had set for myself.  I knew because he had already succeeded at the things I was trying to accomplish, he had the tools to help me to get to where I wanted and needed to be.  I was very receptive to all of the advice he offered, and at the end of that tour, I had accomplished, and exceeded in some cases, much of what I had set out to do.  I transferred to Great Lakes Illinois in January of 2005, but I kept in touch with
Chief McRae.  I employed much of what he taught me during my future mentor/protégé relationships with my junior sailors.  Chief McRae not only helped me from a professional development standpoint, but he embodied many of the traits that I believed a strong leader should have, and I admired that.  He was truly someone I aspired to emulate.  He sensed in me a desire to learn, be a strong and dedicated leader, and the desire to succeed at the things that I set out to do.  He later told me that those things motivated him to be a stronger mentor and leader.  Although I had other mentors over the years after Chief McRae, I owe much of my success as a Senior Enlisted Leader while in the Navy to him!