Evolving in a Mentoring Relationship

They say that the only constant thing in life is change. This is also true when it comes to a mentoring relationship. At some point in your mentoring journey, you’ll be a mentor/guide, and at other times, you’ll be a mentee/believer. This is what makes mentoring a great experience. Today, you’re learning and the next day, you’re sharing. But how exactly do we successfully evolve?

Gotta Catch ‘Em All!

When it comes to the principle, evolution, nothing beats our spirit guides. They remind us that training and experience are key elements in order to go to the next step. We present our spirit guide, Pokémon.

Starting the year 1996, Pokémon has been a part of our lives through the anime series and the games. A total of 896 Pokémon species are now available through various generations. Having the vision of “Catching ‘Em all” the antagonist goes on a journey to find pokémons and train them to evolve to their strongest form.

The Badges of A Pokémon Master

As an embodiment for our 8th and final principle, Evolution, we unravel three key symbols that demonstrate how this principle is exhibited throughout Pokémon. They are:

• Psyduck and not falling into stereotypes.
• Tynamo and the strong group you build.
• Pokeball and the importance of asking. 

Ready your Pokéballs as we are about to catch an in-depth explanation of each symbol. Let’s go!

Psyduck

Psyduck is a Pokémon that resembles a duck or a bipedal platypus. Psyduck is famous for being a Pokémon that always gets this head-cracking headache whenever its trainer needs Psyduck the most. Although it has great psychic powers, it is hindered by headaches and makes Psyduck unusable when its trainer needs it the most.

In a mentoring relationship, Psyduck is a great symbol to stay away from stereotyping yourself. Whenever your mentoring journey gets tough with all the challenges you’re facing make sure to maintain your poise and do not over worry yourself if you encounter a pitfall. What you can do is continue to show up to your meetings because they wouldn’t choose you as a mentee or a mentor if they didn’t see a potential within you. Don’t let your inner power be hindered by headaches. You may exercise the following to help stop over worrying:

• Talk it out. Your worries can be relieved if you can talk it out with your mentor/mentee.
• Relaxation. Battle your worries with relaxation methods to help clear your mind.
• Turn your thoughts around. As they always say “turn negative to positive” find a way to make something out of nothing.

Tynamo

Alone, a single Tynamo is like a prey waiting to be attacked by its predator. To protect themselves, they flock together like a group and defend each other against predators that try to attack them.

Tynamo symbolizes that in order to evolve, you need to have the strongest team. You need to have a team or a mentoring relationship that strives to evolve together and not leave their partner behind just for the sake of improvement. To strengthen your team, you have to:

• Trust your mentor/mentee. Putting all your trust to your mentoring relationship will give both of you the ability to move past hurdles together.
• Show up. You can’t build something if you’re not present. Always show up to your meetings.
• Communicate. It is better to talk it out rather than piling it all up inside.

Pokeball

The iconic pokéball, the machine the pokémon trainers use to shelter their pokémon but in a mentoring relationship, it symbolizes the word “ask” and taking that chance. If you don’t take a chance to ask for another meeting or when will be your next meeting, that mentor might slip away from your hands. Here’s how to make sure that you’ll find success on what you’re asking for:

• Identify the reason. You need to know the specific reason why you’re asking so that you can give more information in case needed.
• Be clear. Make sure that you’re voicing out the correct idea of what you want to make sure that you won’t be misunderstood.
• Plan a specific time. Asking is just the half of it! You also need the perfect time to ask to ensure a higher success rate.

Summary

Evolving is a great feeling once you get to experience it. The constant change from being a mentee to a mentor will truly bring joy to you and the lessons that once being taught to you will now be yours to share! You just need to remember that a successful evolution requires you to not fall into the stereotypes, create a strong team with your mentor or mentee, and always ask to not miss a chance. Evolution doesn’t stop with one! You can continuously seek out ways to evolve your mentoring relationship for the better!