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On Monday morning I and thousands of others received an email from our parent company saying that a conference call would be taking place this week so we could hear what plans are being set up for the global mentoring programme.
Sounds good and should be good at any company that does not have me working at it. Why? I read the small print and lo and behold what did I spy - I am not allowed to be a mentor because only staffers a grade above me are being allowed to be. Oh dear - red rag to a bull!
So I got humphed out and fired up the email. Oh yes, when a certain person fired his email up later in the day at his office in Downtown America, there lying in wait for him would be a nice, ‘Good Morning, we gotta speak NOW damnit’, message from me.
I was very pissed that I could end up being mentored by a clod of a senior manger not of my choice but selected by a stranger in USA who does not know who the senior manager is from a bar of soap. The senior manager most likey agreed to do this mentoring chore because it looks good on the CV instead of planning to be a great mentor who will guide me and any of my staff and distill his/her knowledge, experience, advice and skillsets and all the other accompanying great stuff a committed mentor can do for a fellow colleague.
Notwithstanding the above, who would be more experienced than I in my field of endeavour? You got it - nobody. That is why they hired me! Yes they hired me to manage, strategise, hire and fire and plot and plan the activities and org structure for a large department in Europe. Some staff at our company still think Europe is a single state south of Texas! So guess who knows the job, the challenges, the techniques, the KRAs, the KPIs, customers, product base and everything else associated to what I need my staff to do? Yes, I do.
So what makes Downtown America think that someone they do not know but who qualifies because they are a grade higher than me, (also a person they do not know), can mentor me or my staff better than I or someone I know who has the intelligence, knowledge, skills and experience of work and life in Europe?
Answers on a postcard please to:
Who Can Be My Mentor?
PO Box 73,
GOBSMACKEDVILLE,
EUROPE
South of Texas near the Bermuda Triangle
